Hello from the Beijing Olympics!

One of our big tasks was overseeing the USA swimmers' press conference which saw the world's media turn out en masse to speak to the Speedo-sponsored Olympic hopefuls, not least of all Michael Phelps. With 21,800 accredited media here, we're going to have our work cut out!

Michael Phelps

Michael's grown a moustache and goatee beard and we're finding it hilarious that some people are focussing on this almost as much as his bid to take 8 Olympic Gold medals and beat Mark Spitz's record of 7 golds at the Munich Games in 1972! Swimmers are well-known for their penchant for 'extreme depilation' which gives them the least amount of drag possible in the water but during the practice swims he's still beating everyone hands-down, moustache and all, so he's been really pleased with himself!

We've met some great characters amongst the international media, but some can be a bit too hot in pursuit of their story. One such reporter from America's NBC network barged through past everyone in his haste to get to Michael and nearly sent me flying! Apparently, someone told me later, he's George Bush's nephew or cousin, the American president is here today at the opening ceremony.

Anyway, our first impression of Beijing is that it is absolutely beautiful. The architecture is outstanding, from the Bird's Nest and Water Cube to the CCTV Building (affectionately nicknamed 'The Trousers' by the locals) , it's fantastic to be surrounded by such inspiring and innovative buildings.

Onto the ceremony. The rain that threatened to put a dampener on the big day held off and the smog that everyone's been talking about really hasn't hampered our enjoyment of the opening ceremony. 'Harmony' was definitely the theme for the celebrations, which was directed by 'House of Flying Daggers' director Zhang Yimou. From the 2008 drummers all playing exactly in time with each other to the 100 Indigenous Taiwanese dancers, the flying acrobats and astronauts, the 3000 disciples of Confucius and the gorgeous children dressed in traditional outfits that represented the 56 ethnic groups of China, we stood mesmerised as they all moved in exact synchronisation with each other.

It had all been planned down to the tiniest detail, including the Olympic goodie bag that each of the 91,000 people here today received. We got a set of maracas, a mini Olympic torch and a scarf, which we were told to use at set times so we could all be either flashing lights or making noise or waving all at the same time. It was as if for those few hours, all the conflict in China was forgotten and the message of not only Chinese unity but World unity was all that mattered.

Surreal moment of the day award has to go to Sarah Brightman (as in Andrew Lloyd Webber's ex-wife) who appeared from a lit-up globe construction and sang the Olympic theme 'You and Me' with Chinese singer Liu Huan. And despite being there in the thick of things, we couldn't for the life of us figure out how they made the incredible 'Dream Rings' raise to the roof.

When the athletes' parade began we were surprised to see the running order but someone explained that the countries have been arranged according to the number of strokes it takes to write their names in Chinese in ascending order and it is known as the 'Pinyin' system, so for example instead of being one of the first teams out, Australia is actually second to last. Greece, as the birthplace of the Olympics of course, always goes first and they looked almost angelic in their amazing crisp white suits.

We Brits were slotted in somewhere in the middle, led by swimmer Mark Foster, who is one of the Speedo-sponsored athletes. We were so proud that our Mark Foster was chosen to carry the flag to lead in all the UK athletes. He told us that he did the same thing at the 98 Asia Commonwealth Games and came away with a gold, so he's hoping the flag brings him good luck in Beijing, and so do we.

Here at the magnificent Bird's Nest, mass arena catering is pretty much the same as anywhere else in the world ... or almost. Paul's face was a picture when he ordered a good old hot dog and a can of Coke only to find it doesn't come with a bun. Good if you're on the Atkins diet but Paul wasn't impressed.

The whole event was concluded by one of China's most successful athletes, Olympic gymnast and gold medallist Li Ning who was raised up above the crowds to light the Olympic torch to mark the official start to the Games. The word on the ground is that the ceremony has cost around $100m to put on, and that's on top of the £250m that was spent on the building of the National Arena. All I can say is that today has been one of those 'Once in a lifetime' experiences that we won't be forgetting in a hurry!

Well, it's time for us to go but we'll be checking in periodically to send the latest gossip from Beijing back to Brum via the Post's online blog.