function startingTag(element) {
  element = jqLite(element).clone().empty();
  var elemHtml = jqLite('<div></div>').append(element).html();
  try {
    return element[0].nodeType === NODE_TYPE_TEXT ? lowercase(elemHtml) :
        elemHtml.
          match(/^(<[^>]+>)/)[1].
          replace(/^<([\w-]+)/, function(match, nodeName) {return '<' + lowercase(nodeName);});
  } catch (e) {
    return lowercase(elemHtml);
  }

}
@returns {string} Returns the string representation of the element.