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The closing ceremony of the Beijing Paralympic Games was held in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, in north Beijing at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

The ongoing Beijing Paralympics may well set a new international standard for conduct of the Summer Paralympic Games, said Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA, on Sunday.

Bauer, member of the six-member US president delegation attending the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, has devoted 38 years of service to Disabled Sports USA (DS/USA) — the first 12 years as a volunteer, and the last 26 as its executive director. He has taken a small, all volunteer organization, making it the nation’s largest sports and recreation organization for physically disabled individuals with more than 80 chapters nationwide, DS/USA serves 60,000 people annually.

“Overall, I believe that on reflection, the Beijing Paralympics will be viewed as one of the best in the history of the Summer Paralympic Games. It may well set a new international standard for conduct of the Summer Paralympic Games and the Chinese people should be pound of that,” added 60-year-old Bauer.

“The Beijing Paralympics left the deepest impression both because of the magnificent opening ceremonies production and the quality of the venues and conduct of the sports events that I was able to witness,” said Bauer. “All of the sports venues and facilities I visited were accessible to wheelchair users and others with disabilities. The sports events were very professionally run with events starting on time; timing equipment and scoreboards fully visible and state-of-the-art; official announcements in both English and Mandarin with much information given about the competitors, world records and other history of that sport.

“I was also very impressed with the attention that the media gave to the Beijing Paralympics. It was much more prominent than coverage here in the USA,” Bauer said, citing the front page of China Daily carried a photo of the USA vs Israel wheelchair basketball game during his stay in Beijing.

He was also impressed by the signage, saying that he saw banners on the sides of the roads from the airport into town, banners on the sides of buildings, and flags everywhere.

He said: “I have never seen better promotion of the Paralympics than Beijing.”

Bauer also pointed out that what was most impressive about his visit to Beijing by far was the magnificent opening ceremony to the Paralympic Games. “It was great, superb ceremony which I’ve never seen before.”

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The international media was enthralled by the spectacular performances of opening ceremony of the Beijing Paralympic Games late Saturday, saying the whole world had been moved.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ran a live broadcast of the opening ceremony presented by Clare Balding and Steve Cram.

Calling it “impressive” and “stunning,” Cram said the discipline and unison demonstrated by the young performers “shows the best of Chinese young people,” which will definitely “inspire” the young audiences in the country.

Britain’s ex-Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson told Balding at the BBC studio outside the Bird’s Nest right after the opening ceremony that the ceremony was “very emotional” with so many disabled people participating in the performance.

Normally when the opening ceremonies ended at previous Paralympics, she added, audiences would leave right afterwards to maybe catch a bus. But people didn’t leave very soon this time.

Ade Adepitan, another British Paralympian, said he was not a person who is easily impressed by any grandeur, but he was “touched” by the little ballerina from China’s earthquake-hit Sichuan province.

“This is more than just sports. It’s about life, hope and not giving up,” he noted.

In South Africa, the TV Channel Super Sport Saturday broadcast live the opening ceremony of the Beijing Paralympic Games, speaking highly of the ceremony and hailing the performances as “spectacular” and “beautiful.”

The 2008 Beijing Paralympics is the largest sports gathering for the disabled, and China, as the host country, is trying to create a kind of “homecoming” atmosphere for all the handicapped athletes all over the world, to express the best wishes of “One World, One Dream,” the broadcast said.

Sabastiao Inacio Junior, an official of Angola’s Ministry of Information, told Xinhua that the opening ceremony of the Beijing Paralympics was like nothing he had seen before.

“So admirable and amazing,” he said, “it is as good as the 2008 Olympics.”

The official said the Angolan athletes should like the colorful fireworks and bring honor for Angola, adding that “he hoped the Angolan athletes will bring medals home this time.”

He is confident that Angolan blind athlete Jose Sayovo, Africa’s champion of 100m and 400m races, will be able to realize Angolans’ dream to win a medal at the Beijing Paralympic Games.

Japan’s major broadcaster NHK, or Nippon Hoso Kyokai, broadcasted the ceremony live on its educational channel. When the ceremony started, Akira Takahashi, former head coach of Japan’s national wheelchair basketball team and one of the commentators, said the fervor of the Beijing Olympics had returned to the Bird’s Nest, China’s National Stadium.

Holding the Paralympics in China will boost the sport cause of the handicapped all over the world, Takahashi said.

Kyodo News reported that China feted the Paralympics with a gala opening ceremony, saying athletes were given a warm and enthusiastic reception by an audience of 90,000 people as they paraded into the National Stadium.

The brisk performance of the brilliantly-dressed dancers and the beautiful melody played by the blind pianist demonstrated the love for nature and the delight in life, it said.

Spectators were then treated to a lavish display of music, dance, fireworks and slick visual effects, Kyodo said.

With a dazzling and emotional show that highlighted the value, dignity and dream of life, the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games opened in the Chinese capital on Saturday night, rallying the world under one shared dream of “transcendence, integration and equality” for the disabled.

A record 4,000-plus athletes from 147 countries and regions, 10 times the figure at the Games’ debut in Rome 1960, marched into the stadium amid thundering cheers from the stands, before Chinese President Hu Jintao declared the Games open at 22:36 Beijing time.

“These Games will have more athletes, more competing nations, and more sporting events than ever before,” said Philip Craven in his opening ceremony speech, calling them “milestones in Paralympic history.”

The three-hour ceremony climaxed when Hou Bin, China’s triple Paralympic high jump champion with only one leg, lit the cauldron for the Games.

With the torch on his wheelchair, the 33-year-old Hou used both hands to pull himself up along a hanging rope to the rim of the steel-latticed Bird’s Nest to accomplish his laborious mission. Though suspended by wires, he had to halt and gasp for several times, with the entire crowd cheering him on loudly.

The Paralympic flame, first lit at the 600-year-old Temple of Heaven in south Beijing on Aug. 28, was relayed through 11 Chinese cities — including ancient capitals Xi’an and Luoyang and modern metropolises Shanghai and Shenzhen — in nine days, covering a distance of 13,181 kilometers and involving 850 torchbearers.

Shortly before the cauldron was set ablaze, the IPC flag, which carries the IPC logo of red, blue and green curves — a new design adopted just in 2003 and used at a Paralympics for the first time, was escorted into the stadium by a team of eight Chinese Paralympic gold medalists, and hoisted next to the Chinese national flag.

On behalf of all athletes and officials, Chinese athlete Wu Chunmiao and goalball referee Hao Guohua, holding a corner of the IPC flag, took the Paralympic oath, vowing to keep the Games competition fair and clean.

“Over the next 11 days, the heroines and heroes will undoubtedly be the athletes,” said the IPC president.

The Paralympians, many in wheelchairs or on crutches and often seen supporting each other on the track, were ushered into the stadium minutes after the opening ceremony began at 20:00 Beijing time sharp.

All smiling broadly, they waved hands, hats and flags to the stands, and posed for pictures with team guides or volunteers.

The parade sequence was decided by the number of strokes of the first character of the delegations’ Chinese names, and Guinea, whose name begins with a two-stroke character, became the leader.

As is customary, the host delegation entered last. Having surprisingly topped both the gold and overall medal tally at the Athens 2004 Paralympics with 63 golds, 46 silvers and 32 bronzes, China sent in the largest delegation of 547 members and 332 athletes to these Games.

Wang Xiaofu, a 20-year-old amputee swimmer who won three golds with three world records at the Athens Paralympics and will compete in seven events this time, carried the flag and spearheaded the team.

While the Chinese Paralympians, who will compete in all the 20 sports and 295 of the total 472 events at these Games, are eager and set to deliver on the home field and repeat their glory four years ago, they will meet strong contest from traditional Paralympic powerhouses like Britain, Canada, the United States and Australia.

Today is the first day of the Paralymipic torch relay in Beijing.

First torchbearer Wang Juan receives the torch during the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Torch Relay in Beijing, Sept. 5, 2008.