Special report: 2008 Olympic Games
TAIPEI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A troupe of more than 100 ethnic Taiwanese left Taipei by a cross-Strait weekend charter flight on Monday for a performance during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.
The troupe members were not professional singers and dancers but they were willing to display the Taiwan's indigenous minority culture, said troupe leader Kao Chin Su-Mei.
The troupe will give a 3-minute-plus performance during the warm-up part of the opening ceremony to be held at the Bird's Nest. It will perform the Bunun Tribe's unique eight-note harmonies, the hair dance of Tau Tribe and other ritual dances of indigenous tribes in the show, according to the leader.
In an earlier interview, she has said her team were proud and honored to present their culture and tradition to the Olympic audience.
She said all the members arrived in Taipei one day ahead of schedule on Sunday as they were worried Typhoon Fung Wong would have hindered traffic.
During a rehearsal several days ago, many troupe members told Xinhua they were anxious to give the performance in Beijing and take the opportunity to have a look at the mainland.
The Olympic Rings Witnessed by at least 90,000 spectators, the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games was held at the National Stadium — nicknamed "Bird's Nest" — in Beijing China this evening. The ceremony began at 8:00 p.m. local time (12:00 noon UTC) with two thousand and eight ancient Chinese percussion instruments called "Fou", each controlled by a young man. The first greeting message was a Confucius' saying, "How Happy We Are, To Meet Friends From Afar", which the percussionists chanted. 

204 teams from over the world marched into the stadium. In Olympic tradition, Greece entered first and China appeared last — the originating country and the host country, respectively. The other 202 teams were welcomed, ordered by the count of strokes to write the team name in Chinese characters.

There were several performances, including a 100+ member troupe of Taiwanese dancers and Chinese pop group A-One. There were also solo performances by Lang Lang, Sarah Brightman, and Liu Huan.