The Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony begins at 8:08pm at the National Stadium in Beijing, which is also known as the Bird’s Nest.

At the time of this writing, various cultural performances are being staged in the stadium. Contingents from participating countries will march in later before the games is declared officially open and the cauldron lighted up.

Back here in the Klang Valley, Malaysia, various F&B outlets organize public screenings of the opening ceremony. This has caused severe traffic congestion in various parts of the Klang Valley when many city folks chose to watch the games opening ceremony live at these locations.

Updated at 21:16

The Malaysian contingent has marched into the stadium. It is the 10th contingent to march into the stadium as the order is arranged according to Chinese characters rather than English alphabetical order. Earlier, Greece became the first contingent to march in as in tradition while host, China will be the last contingent.

Updated at 23:36

The games is now officially launched by the President of the People’s Republic of China, Hu Jintao.

Updated at 23:51

The Olympic flag is raised at 23:46, accompanied by the Olympic anthem. This is then followed by oath taking of the athletes, led by Zhang Yining and oath taking by games officials led by Huang Liping.

Updated at 00:05 (9 Aug 2008)

The Olympic Flame is successfully lighted at the cauldron by Li Ning. He is lifted by strings to the stadium roof, “running” around the roof as video clips of the torch relay stages, including the one staged in Kuala Lumpur in April is projected on the roof.

He then lighted a wire string which sparks the flames across to the cauldron not far away, thus lighted the flame.

Fireworks then followed.