So what impression does the world have of China in the wake of the Games? As an editorial in the Wall Street Journal put it following the closing ceremonies on August 24: "In the end...the biggest winner may have been China. China disarmed the world with a firm but polite pageant."

    Ever since Beijing won the bid for the Olympics seven years ago, the international community has regarded the Games as a window on the emerging China, while China has hoped to show its real face to the world. Over 20,000 accredited and 10,000 non-accredited journalists covered the Games, an Olympic record in itself, and the international media's unprecedented interest in all things Chinese revealed the country to the world.

    The opening ceremony on August 8 was a stunning fusion of traditional and modern China, and the world applauded with gusto. Various authentic "Chinese elements," such as the fireworks displays, the "four great inventions," and Confucianism, were presented in a high-tech explosion of wizardry that drew wild cheers from the 90,000 spectators in the "Bird's Nest," and rave revues around the world.

    "China's gold-medal haul and the nearly flawless opening and closing extravaganzas laid to rest any residual images of drones in Mao suits or of a country that has gotten rich by knocking off others' products," concluded the Wall Street Journal.

    The passionate Chinese people brought to bear their open-mindedness during the Olympics, and Western media did not fail to notice that Chinese spectators were just as enthusiastic about foreign players as they were about their own athletes. "The audience's revelry has nothing like the nationalist sentiment when the Olympic torch relay was hindered in Europe this spring. Unlike hooligans in England, they are here for joy and the atmosphere is quite good," summarized the French paper Le Monde.

    A review on the front page of the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun commented that in an era of globalization, sports have become humanity's common wealth. Only exchanges based on an open mind can hope to succeed. China's achievement in the Olympics was the reward for an increasingly open society and a gradually maturing people.

    "Today's China is similar to the prosperous Tang Dynasty," the Japanese newspaper, normally critical of China, said. It will now be up to England, which will host the next Games four years from now, to build on the dazzling legacy of the Beijing Games.