About 4650 years ago, according to Chinese legend, Chinese characters (also called Hanzi) were invented by Cangji, a government official under the first legendary emperor Huangdi of China. Cangji was inspired by the possibility of a logical relation of a tortoise veins when he hunted on Mount Yangxu, he also studied the animals of the world, the landscape of the earth, and the stars in the sky, finally a symbolic system of Chinese characters was invented. Another legend tells that Cangjie saw a divine being whose face had unusual features which looked like a picture of writings, then Cangjie created the earliest written characters by imitating his image. The ancient Chinese writers believed that on the day the characters were born, Chinese heard the devil mourning, and saw crops falling like rain, as it marked the beginning of the world.

Beijing 2008 Olympic games begun at 8:00pm August 8th. Chinese President Hu Jintao declared open the 29th summer Olympic Games of Beijing in the National Stadium in north Beijing on the night.

The Opening Ceremony began with the last minute countdown, a roar of thunder came from the floor of the National Stadium where 2,008 drummers beat line after line of fou, an ancient Chinese percussion instrument. The drummers chanted as they struck the fou, "Friends have come from afar, how happy we are." This phrase comes from the work of Confucius, one of China's most important educators and thinkers.