With the Olympics just 5 days away, all eyes are focusing on preparations for the opening ceremony.

As dusk fell over Tiananmen square in the heart of Beijing on Saturday, thousands of Chinese from all over the country waited patiently for part of the rehearsal for one of the biggest shows in the country's history.

The lowering of the national flag draws hundreds of people to Tiananmen every day, but many were there on Saturday for a far older pillar of the country's culture - fireworks.

The opening ceremony rehearsal was rumored to be starting at 8.08 p.m., as it will on August 8th. But Saturday's fireworks didn't start until two hours later.

The opening ceremony will use around 10,000 performers and is expected to be seen by a global television audience of about four billion people.

A few kilometers due north of Tiananmen square, another rehearsal also took place on Saturday night.