Beijing : China has downsized the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics amid the surge in Covid-19 cases across the globe. Chinese Film Director Zhang Yimou has announced that the opening ceremony will be much shorter than that of the 2008 Summer Games held in the capital.
Zhang informed that the opening ceremony on February 4 at the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, will feature about 3,000 performers and last less than 100 minutes, reported NHK World. Zhang has been appointed chief director of the Games’ opening and closing ceremonies, reprising his role in the 2008 Olympics. The number of performers is one-fifth that of the 2008 ceremony and the and the length will be less than half.
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With less than one month to go before the Olympics, community infections of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been confirmed in the city of Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, and the inland province of Henan, NHK World reported. Whereas the 2008 Summer Olympics was widely regarded as China’s ‘coming out party’ on the world stage, the 2022 Winter Games will be held within a tightly sealed ‘Covid-safe bubble’ isolating participants and attendees from the wider Chinese population.
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