If the opening ceremony held at the same riverside venue on November 12th was high on technical wizardry, the closing was a heart-touching display of warmth by the people of this South China city whose infrastructure has improved tremendously as a result of hosting the Games which saw India record their best-ever medal haul till date.
India finished sixth on the medal rostrum with a record 14 gold, 17 silver and 33 bronze for an overall tally of 64, eclipsing their earlier record of 57 medals in the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi.
The closing ceremony was also used by the Games hosts to present cultural segments representing the different regions of the continent, including South Asia in which Indian singers Ravi Tripathi and Tanya Gupta enthralled the capacity crowd.
Hosts China were unstoppable in their relentless march to titles and at the end of the Games had an incredible harvest of 199 gold in an overall haul of over 400 medals, proving once again that they are in the top-most echelons of world sports.
Korea finished way behind in second place while Japan were third that underlined the fact that the Asian Games, the second largest sports event after the Olympic Games, are still being overwhelmingly dominated by the far eastern nations of the continent.
The prelude to the official part of the ceremony was punctuated by dance of Qiling (a legendary animal symbolizing good luck) to celebrate the success of the Games that was followed by an exhibition of acrobatics and dance.
Performers staged "Dragon drunk on the Pearl River", "Painting of Toy figuring in Emotion" and "Wind of the Yao
Ethnic Group" dances while flashbacks of the Asian Games actions were shown on sail-shaped screens before the Chinese President Hu Jintao and Olympic Council of Asia Chief Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah entered the arena to the strains of the Chinese Military Band.
With nine plumes of red smoke rising up from the Guangzhou Tower, an athlete jumped out of the screen while the eight sail-shaped screens showed some memorable moments of the Games competitions.
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