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eveal themselves and waved happily at the audience. From revealing themselves, it indicated that these blocks were not controlled by computer but the efforts of 897 performers. This made the whole stadium clap.

A short scene of Chinese opera was played and the LED scroll was placed back in the middle of the stadium. An ancient Silk Road was exhibited with a female dancer dressed in Tang-era clothing dancing on it. The term, Silk Road, refers to ‘the collection of Eurasian roads and trade routes that connected the Mediterranean Basin in the west to China in the east.’ (Moore & Wendelken, 2010:16) The Silk Road opened during the first century BC, mainly used for trading Silk, and as the road expanded, the East and the West used it to exchange culture, including the exchange of musical instruments, medicinal plants, and religious ideas which brought China out of its ‘splendid isolation’. (Moore & Wendelken, 2010:45) Buddhism was broadly accepted by scholars of China in central and South-West Asia, making it the most associated religion with the Silk Road. ‘While Buddhism undoubtedly brought new ideas into Chinese culture, China also shaped the Buddhist traditions that were to prevail in East Asia.’ (Moore & Wendelken, 2010:49) The exchange of religion led to many debates, such as the misinterpretation of the original doctrine, and whether Buddhism took over China or China took over Buddhism. Not only Buddhism was spread along the Silk Road, Christianity too, was brought to the Silk Road because the Chinese thought that ‘Nestorian Christianity, as a variant form of Buddhism.’ (Moore & Wendelken, 2010:96) However, Christianity did not survive long in China, ‘it vanished quite completely with the decline of the Tang dynasty.’ (Ong, 2005:128) The Silk Road definitely is one of the outstanding achievements of the ancient China due to its contribution to their economic, culture, and religion progress. Though the Silk Road is no longer in use, by putting it in the ceremony, it reminded the audience about the movement of cultures in ancient times and that, China is a major player in the global trade of goods and service both in the past and present. The Silk Road represented a powerful and globalised China.

This was followed by a boat journey, presenting China’s rich history of navigation. Hundreds of men held big oars and dressed in blue representing the sea. They formed formations of a junk, an ancient Chinese sailing ship, while maps of Zheng He’s seven voyages were beamed onto the scroll with a man in the middle holding the third great invention, the compass. The earliest of the four great inventions was the compass which was made during the Qin dynasty. Zheng He was an explorer who travelled around South-East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Somalia, and the Swahili coast between 1405 and 1433. He was the first to use a compass as a navigational aid and led the Chinese to discover the New World – even before Christopher Columbus. Before the invention of the compass, ‘There were no navigational tools beyond the celestial bodies of the Sun, Moon, and stars.’ (Krebs & Krebs, 2003:334) The compass helped the Chinese to determine geographical position which expanded their knowledge of the world map, and benefited the trading route of the Sil本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。