TV viewers in the United States will have to wait for 12 hours to see the extravaganza of the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympiad on Sunday night local time, but expectations are running high.

On New York's Times Square, police officer Jasmine Murry expects big crowds before the large screen of National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which owns the exclusive broadcast rights to the Beijing Olympics.

"This is Times Square, the 'crossroads of the world,'" Murry said. "Everyone, every country stands right here, looking at the big TV."

At "Wang Chen Table Tennis Club" several blocks west of New York's Central Park, the mood has been joyous since Wang Chen succeeded in making her to the quarter finals in women's table tennis singles, the best Olympics performance for the Americans.

Wally Green, a regular at the club and played in several professional tournaments around the world, said he was amazed by the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, especially the scene when 58 actors performed on a huge globe, with half of them being upside down for part of the time.

Green said he would watch the closing ceremony with friends.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2008)