Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- From yellow dragon, red peonies to 2008 smiling faces, China, as the birthplace of gunpowder, said it will display spectacular fireworks at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

    "The fireworks will be dazzling of different various combinations lasting 20 minutes," Wang Ning, executive deputy director of Opening and Closing Ceremonies Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), said Wednesday at a press conference.

    Wang said the host has spent more than two years working on the firework plan so that it could reflect the Olympic ideals and help create "joyous and festive atmosphere of jubilation" for the Olympics.

    Some of the fireworks will be fired off to tell stories of the Olympic history and depict how the ideals arrive in Beijing, said Wang. "For the first time, the shape of the Olympics Rings will be formed (during the firework display)."

    A climax would be the release of fireworks picturing 2008 smiling faces in the sky to accompany the display of thousands of pictures of smiling faces collected all over the world during the performances.

    Other highlights include the fireworks being fired up into yellow dragon and red peonies, spanning two to three kilometers along the dragon-shaped landscape water system of the Olympics Green.

    Altogether there will be 73 release sites including one at the Juyongguan pass of the Great Wall and the total amount will be 35,000 shells, Cai Guoqiang, director of visual and special effects of opening and closing ceremonies for Olympics and Paralympics, said.

    Highlighting the idea of a "Green Olympics", Wang said some of the fireworks at the opening ceremony will use small smoke powder, or so-called "minimum smoke power".

    "Some sophisticated launch technology will reduce the smoke and dust to minimize the impact or pollution to the environment," he said.

    As fireworks are all manually made, quality of the fireworks remains a challenge to the organizers.

    Deng Shaohui, deputy director of opening and closing ceremonies department of BOCOG, said two percent of dumb scroll is allowed according to Chinese standard.

    "On the July 16 rehearsal of the fireworks, we shot up about 10,000 shells in the dragon-shaped landscape, and less than one percent was dumb," he said.

    The official also dismissed a report of an alleged fire incident at the Bird's Nest caused by the rehearsal, saying that "we don't have any fire incident related to the fireworks."

    But the official admitted that some parts were melted on the membrane structure of the Bird's Nest during an early rush test.

    "(During that test) We didn't use the designated fireworks for the opening ceremonies because we just decided the suppliers of the fireworks," he said. He didn't give the exact date of that test.

    Deng said the fireworks tested on July 16 was exactly the same scale and amount as the opening ceremony. "There was no impact on the membrane structure."

    The official also said that drizzle will not affect the fireworks. But if it is continuing shower, the firework display might have to be canceled.