Moo! Lele, the cow looks like a robot.. Opening Ceremony Paralympics

The Olympics are over, but Beijing is not yet falling asleep:the next big event started yesterday, the Paralympics. And this time we managed to get some tickets - thanks to the organisation of Agnes mum! Paralympics are for those athletes who have a 'body disability', i.e. wheelchair, blind, one legged etc. (For mentally ill people there's yet another Olympics, the Special Olympics..)

福牛乐乐 (the cow Lele) is the mascot of the 2008 Paralympic games. Interestingly, at the Paralympics there is also at least one discipline which doesn't exist in the normal Olympics named 'goalball'. What is goalball about? It's for blind or partially blind people.

"Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it, into the opponents' goal. They must use the sound of the bell to judge the position and movement of the ball. Games consist of two 10 minute halves. Blindfolds allow partially sighted players to compete on an equal footing with blind players."

The Opening Ceremony was great! Again Zhang Yimou was the director and his composition was a mere pleasure except for the cow Lele dance where Lele more looked like an ugly robot than like a cow. When we entered the National Stadium (named bird's nest), there was a big bag waiting on our seat containing a Chinese flag, a IPC (International Paralympic Committee) flag, a torch, a bell to make noise etc. Before the opening ceremony began, they taught us how and when to use those devices. Quite some fun! And already more than worth the 80 kuai (8 EUR) which we had paid as entrance fee :-). They also managed to integrate the spirit of the paralympics into the opening ceremony by letting disabled people perfom e.g. a blind piano player, a wheelchair ballet dancer (of course from Sichuan). There was also a firework (not only then the stadium was trembling). In total 80.000 visitors. And the Olympic fire was lit in a spectacular way by a wheelchair athlete who, just using his hands, climbed up a long cord to the top of the stadium..