The Chinese shared the Olympic pride as they watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

In Beijing, locals and visitors braved stifling heat as they crowded parks and other designated viewing areas to see the opening ceremony, the paper said.

"They might not have tickets to the Games. They might never set foot inside a stadium. But wherever there was a TV screen, big or small, the people of Beijing on Friday gathered and cheered, soaking up this brief moment in the long history of this ancient capital when the Olympic flame illuminated the Chinese sky," the paper said.

Despite suffocating heat and the threat of a summer shower, locals poured into designated parks and viewing areas in Beijing, grandparents and babies in tow, some waiting hours for a foothold among the standing-room-only crowds of thousands that roared past midnight, the paper described.

"I am so proud to be Chinese tonight," Ju Ke, a 19-year-old animation student who got a front row seat on the grass of Ditan Park before two giant monitors, was quoted as saying.

"China has made so much progress in recent years," he said. "Chinese culture is so amazing. The Olympics are so hard-earned."

All the years of waiting and sacrifice seemed worth it when the Games finally began at that auspicious 8 minutes past 8 on the eighth day of the eight month in the eighth year past the second millennium, the paper noted.

"They've probably been preparing for this day since Deng Xiaoping opened up China to the world," said Nicholas Martelli, a Chinese language student from Italy who also had waited hours to see the show on the big screen along with a group of spectators from Spain.

(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2008)