Beijing said farewell to the Olympic Games with all the theatricality with which they welcomed them here at the Bird's Nest.
To describe the scenes that a capacity crowd of 91,000 witnessed Saturday as "fantastic" would be both literally accurate and yet somehow inadequate.
It all added up, as indeed the whole Games had, into a very hard act for London to follow in 2012.
For how could they top this?
Perhaps there was a clue in the handover section which featured an ageing rocker in Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, a pop star propelled to prominence by a reality television show in Leona Lewis and footballer David Beckham, a man whose massive global celebrity brought him instant recognition.
When the main event began, movie director Zhang Yimou, the man responsible for the opening ceremony, again created a colourful vista featuring hundreds of dancers, ribbons, traditional fans and fireworks.
Even more spectacular, was the acrobatic sight of musicians suspended on giant drums lowered from the Bird's Nest roof looking like they were taking part in adverts designed to demonstrate an adhesive's strength.