About 40,000 flag-waving people gathered in front of Buckingham Palace for celebrating.

About 40,000 flag-waving people gathered in front of Buckingham Palace for a party celebrating the hand over from Beijing as the British capital got its first chance to show what it hopes will be a quirky, personal and fun approach to the Games.

London organizers have long known they are unable to match Beijing in terms of scale, not least because London's Olympic budget of 16.6 billion US dollars is less than half that of the money spent in Beijing. While big screens around the country showed Led Zeppelin, guitarist Jimmy Page and football star David Beckham live at the official ceremony in Beijing, less internationally recognized names such as Katherine Jenkins, the boyband McFly and Liz MacLamon took to the stage in central London.

(CCTV August 26, 2008)