Zai jian from the Bird's Nest

Paul Gilham/Getty Images

BEIJING - AUGUST 24: Fireworks ignite over the National Stadium during the Closing Ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 24, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

BEIJING -- Several minutes of massive fireworks. A frenzy of dancing and flag-waving around and on the memory tower.

And it's over.

The ceremony is over. The 2008 Beijing Olympics are over.

"Good night, everyone," the announcer says over the big speakers.

Hard to believe. I was there in Moscow in 2001 when China was awarded these Games.

It has been an incredible ride.

I will, of course, be glad to be back home in California. But, truly, I will be sad to leave Beijing and China. At the risk of repetition: it has been a privilege to be a part of chronicling these "truly exceptional" Olympics. We are not likely to see another quite like them.

Curtain call: all the performers pour onto the field for the final number.

Oh, wait: just as at the opening ceremony, there's Jackie Chan singing. Again. I never thought I would write, "Jackie Chan is singing," once in my life, much less twice.

More singing.

Wei Wei, China's biggest pop star and Sun Nan, a Chinese singer and songwriter. They belt out "To Overcome."

Placido Domingo comes next, along with Chinese actress and singer Song Zuying.

They're performing a song called "The Flame of Love."

Domingo is of course one of the so-called "Three Tenors," along with Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carerreras. Remember Pavarotti singing at the ceremonies in Torino in 2006?

No knock on "The Flame of Love." Me, I'll take "Whole Lotta Love."

We shoulda known. Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" was blasting out over the speakers here at the Bird's Nest Friday night, at the conclusion of the evening's track and field.

And here we -- Joe Battaglia and I, the two of us with the pleasure and privilege of covering track with both here and at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. -- thought someone in China was just a Zep fan.

Now time for what's called the "carnival" part of the show, and it kicks off with a song that those of us here have heard repeatedly, day after day, "Beijing, Beijing, I love Beijing."

It's one of those bouncy songs that you can't get out of your mind. Until you stop hearing it, and then you can't remember even one note. Which I suppose is songwriting genius of a sort.

The memory tower walkers are now rappelling down from the top of the tower. Some are zipping down to the far reaches of the field via guy wires. Again, incredible.

The tower, whihc looks like a non-leaning tower of Pisa, is now revealed to be filled with hundreds of people on its sides, some dressed mostly in red clingly uniforms and baseball hats, some in shiny metallic uniforms.

They perform outrageously an exquisite synchronized ballet on, around, atop and over the tower. An idea outrageous in its imagination, stupendous in its execution.

Their display is followed by the appearance of 16 huge "lucky cloud yarn strips" that extend from the memory tower over the field.

As the Olympic cauldron is extinguished, flashlights go on throughout the audience, purporting to signify that the flame lives on.

Outside the Bird's Nest, it's time for a barrage of fireworks.

A boarding ramp like those that ferry passengers from an airport terminal onto an airliner appears. Flight display info appears on the big screens.

An athlete about to leave walks up the ladder. He slowly takes out a scroll and unfolds it and -- a huge mechanical device, dubbed a "memory tower," arises in the center of the field as the screens circling the rim display images taken from the competition and scenes here at the 2008 Games.

Oh, wait. What's a party without David Beckham?

Becks is atop the bus, too. He kicks the soccer ball. A Chinese guy recovers it. Excellent souvenir, I guess -- if you're among those who can't get enough Beckham, no matter what.

Illuminated umbrellas are now flashing on the side of the bus as it heads for the tunnel under the stadium.

Here comes an iconic red London double-decker bus onto the field.

Here are medal-winning British cyclists, including Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton.

A crowd of folks, meant to evoke a busy London street, gathers in front of the door to the bus.

The crowd parts. Out comes 9-year-old Tayyiba Dudhwala, chosen from contestants on a popular British TV program; she meets Erika Tham. Erika is of Chinese, Canadian, Malaysian and Ukrainian heritage. Tayyiba hands a soccer ball to Erika.

Meanwhile, the top of the bus opens and out pops British pop star Leona Lewis (her dress created by students at the London College of Fashion).

And who's this, Led Zeppelin freaks? Jimmy Page, and he's riffing. Whole lotta love, indeed, while Leona is singing, "Way down inside ... gonna give you my love."

Maybe Zeppelin will re-reunite in time for those 2012 Games?

To reiterate that prediction: London's got the makings of a big party.

The Olympic hymn is sung -- by 226 children.

Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong and London Mayor Boris Johnson take center stage for the hand-over of the Olympic flag, 2008 to 2012.

How in the world is London supposed to top Beijing?

Rogge was asked that at a news conference earlier Sunday. His answer:

"It is clear China has put the bar very high. It's going to be a challenge for London but also for all subsequent Games. I believe and I hope London can even put the bar higher," adding a moment later, "I believe London has unique assets."

A prediction: London is more likely to have the feel of a big party, the way it was in Sydney in 2000.

Rogge, speaking from the stage at the center of the stadium, says of the 2008 Olympics, "These were truly exceptional Games!"

Unlike his predecessor, Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain, Rogge does not bestow titles upon each edition of the Games such as "best-ever."

Rogge described the 2004 Athens Olympics as "unforgettable, dream Games."

He called the 2006 Torino Winter Games "truly magnificent Games," the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games "superb Games."

Rogge was elected IOC president in 2001. He has one more year to run on his eight-year term; he is widely expected to run for a second term which by IOC rule is limited to four years. That election will take place in 2009.

Walking in now, the four new members of the IOIC athletes' commission who, by extension, are also now IOC members.

None is an American. The U.S. delegation within the IOC is due now to shrink to two, since Bob Ctvrtlik's eight-year term as athlete delegate comes to a close with the end of the 2008 Games; he had been elected in Sydney in 2000.

The two remaining Americans in the IOC: Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles; Jim Easton of Van Nuys, Calif.

Ctvrtlik remains an important figure in IOC politics and is a key figure in Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Games. The IOC will pick the 2016 city in 2009. The other three cities in the 2016 mix: Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Madrid.

The four new athlete reps: Moon Dae-Sung, a South Korean taekwondo player; Alexander Popov, the Russian swimming legend; German fencer Claudia Bokel; and Yumilka Ruiz, a Cuban volleyball star and two-time gold medalist.

The U.S. candidate in the athlete elections here at the Beijing Games, soccer star Julie Foudy, was not among the top four vote-getters. Current or recently retired athletes are eligible; candidates must have been nominated by their national Olympic committee.

Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, the four-time Olympic silver medalist in the sprints, is the new chair of the athletes' commission.

Rehearsals for this closing ceremony have gone on for nearly a year; volunteers attended their first group rehearsal in September, 2007.
Practices were held miles away from the Bird's Nest.

The medals ceremony for the men's marathon, run earlier Sunday, won by Kenya's Samy Wanjiru, that nation's first marathon gold.

His time, 2:06.32, eclipsed the Olympic record by three minutes.

Kenya won five gold medals here in Beijing -- their best-ever Olympic performance.

Jaouad Gharib of Morocco won silver, Tsegay Kebede of Ethiopia bronze.

Reflecting the import of the marathon in Olympic history and protocol, the medals are being presented by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and Lamine Diack, president of track and field's governing body, the International Assn. of Athletics Federations.

The athletes of the world are flooding the floor, entering the stadium from its four corners. No marching tonight behind one's own flag. There's a lot of picture-taking down there, a lot of video camera-ing, too.

This particular tradition began at the 1956 Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia. Olympic lore holds that a 17-year-old Chinese-Australian boy named John Ian Wing suggested to organizers that having all the athletes together at the closing cereremony, without regard to nationality, would "make these Games even greater."

The flagbearers of the 204 national Olympic committees that took part here are entering, half from one side of the stadium (led by Greece), half from the other (led by Saudi Arabia). The Chinese are, of course, last to enter.

The American bearer: Khatuna Lorig, an archer who finished fifth here, who won team bronze in 1992 competing for the Unified Team in the aftermath of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Now come 60 "light wheels." Each has a diameter of 2.008 meters. Each gives off fluorescent light. They're rolling around the stadium floor between the silver belles.

The belles bells are now illuminated, too, and they're now lined up in radiating wave lines.

The first act of the ceremony is, as might be expected, spectacular.

In the center of the stadium, in a circle, 200 red- and yellow-clad drummers are banging away. Surrounding them in a concentric circle, precisely 1,148 women in yellow dresses wearing row upon row of silver bells.

Eight drum carts carry more performers onto the stage. Eight rotating poles are swing across the field. Sixty light wheels and 200 "flying men" join in.

More fireworks go off atop the stadium rim, tracing a circle -- there you go again -- around the Bird's Nest.

Traditionally, the closing ceremony is not designed to strike the same awe as the opening ceremony -- as if anything could top the Aug. 8 opening here, anyway.

This will be, by design, more of a party atmosphere here tonight. The themes of the ceremony: harmony, friendship and joy.

It's now 8 p.m. sharp and the first fireworks are going off in a circle all around Olympic Green, reds, greens, hyellow, pinnks, purples. The circle is a symbol of harmony and renewal in Chinese culture.

Only 6,800 performers will take part in tonight's closing ceremony. The opening ceremony featured 15,000 performers. There is not one -- repeat, not one -- repeat performer between the two ceremonies.

It is with genuine melancholy that I am back in my position here at the Bird's Nest tonight, 16 nights after being here for the first time for the opening ceremony.

I have been in this seat night after night this past week for track and field. Here, 11 rows up from the stadium field, right on the finish line, is where I saw Usain Bolt set three world records, saw LaShawn Merritt run to victory in the 400m. And so much more.

Before that, I watched every single one of Michael Phelps' races, every single competition of artistic gymnastics.

And more.

I said coming here that these would be extraordinary Olympics. These Games have produced 40 world records, 120 Olympic records.

It has been a privilege to be here to bear witness to history.

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