The closing ceremony of Athens Olympic Games is the highlight of today’s Beijing newspapers. The focus is not the variety show at the ceremony, but the flag handover ceremony: the Olympic flag was passed from the mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyannis, to International Olympic Committee Rogge, who gave it to Wang Qishan, the mayor of Beijing.
Besides this, most newspapers praised the 8 minute-long Chinese performance at the variety show directed by Zhang Yimou. True to form, he used large blocks of colored cloth and clored lights and the famous Chinese song Jasmine (moli hua). Most media called it ‘surprising and gorgeous’ (jing yan).
Pictured front page is from Beijing Daily Messenger.