Drummers float above the crowd during the closing ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium in Beijing last night.- Shanghai Daily

Zhou Xiaozheng and Cao Jianjie/Shanghai Daily news

The competition is over and the party begins, all medals have been awarded but the memory stays.

In a lavish closing ceremony illuminated by a fireworks extravaganza, the world's top athletes joined their Chinese hosts to celebrate the success of the 2008 Olympic Games last night.

When the Olympic flame, after 16 days of burning in the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, in Beijing, went out at 9:24pm, songs and dances reigned, turning the ceremony into a big party.

Surrounded by several thousand Olympians, all in casual wear and a jubilant mood, nearly 3,000 Chinese performers and volunteers started a spectacular circle dance around a 20-meter-tall "Memory Tower."

"These were truly exceptional Games," said International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, before he declared the Games closed in front of about 91,000 spectators, including President Hu Jintao, who opened the Games on August 8, and dozens of foreign leaders and world dignitaries.

The night's finale occurred when the cauldron was doused with a light-hearted touch. Three athletes ascended a boarding ladder truck with a radio announcing a London-bound flight, and gazed at the flame atop the stadium.

Memory Tower

One of them took out and unfolded an exquisite Chinese painting scroll, while the bowl rim of the Bird's Nest, which is a 500-meter-long, 14-meter-wide circular screen, changed into a "red track" and the memorable scenes of the Games were projected onto it, day by day.

The Olympic flame went out slowly as the athlete folded the painting again. But at the same time, a fresh "flame" was lit in the stadium, with 396 performers on the "Memory Tower" simulating fire with their bodies and the entire audience turning on the torches in their hands.

"The fire of the Chinese people's passion to embrace the world will burn forever," Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games, told the ceremony.

The Beijing Games have attracted the most participants - from a record 204 countries and regions - while reporting the fewest doping scandals, with only six athletes, none from China, failing to pass the 4,500 random and post-competition tests.

World records tumbled like the dominos at the Games, as Jamaica's Usain "Lightning" Bolt clocked mankind's fastest speed for both the 100m and 200m sprint on the track of the Bird's Nest, and a whopping 19 world and 41 Olympic records were broken in the swimming pool of the National Aquatics Center, or the Water Cube, alone.

Michael Phelps, the "American flying fish" as Chinese fans call him, smiled after he fulfilled his long-held dream of an eight-for-eight gold sweep, with seven world records. He has become the greatest Olympian with a personal collection of 14 swimming golds at two consecutive Games.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese cried when they saw their star hurdler Liu Xiang limp off the track before a first-round heat with a recurring tendon injury.

True heroes

With or without a medal, the athletes are always the Games' heroes. Without distinction of nationality, they entered the National Stadium en masse last night, amid thundering cheers from the stands and original welcoming tunes - a mixture of drum beating and the ringing of tiny silver bells on the costumes of 1,148 dancing girls.

The last three medals were awarded to the winners of men's marathon, with Samuel Kamau Wansiru of Kenya taking the gold, and the silver and bronze going to Jaouad Gharib of Morocco and Tsegay Kebede of Ethiopia.

"To the athletes tonight: You were true role models," said Rogge, presenting the marathon gold. "You have shown us the unifying power of sport."

Three newly elected members of the Athletes' Commission of the IOC presented bouquets to 12 Chinese and foreign volunteers, who represented not only the 70,000-strong volunteers working at the Games facilities, but also about 1.4 million others who helped in security, transport, information and lodging services.

"We hope you will bear in mind the vigor and vitality of Beijing and the co-host cities, bear in mind the Chinese people who are deeply faithful to the Olympic movement, and bear in mind the smile and dedication of the volunteers," said Liu Qi, the BOCOG chief.

Just before the extinguishing of the Olympic flame in the Bird's Nest, a brief ceremony was held to mark the passing of the host baton from Beijing to London.

Via Rogge, Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong handed over the Olympic flag to his London counterpart Boris Johnson, who waved the flag to signal the start of an eight-minute handover performance from the Games' next host.

The 2-million-pound (US$3.74 million) show, designed to showcase London as a "young and vibrant" city, drove the crowd wild, especially when soccer superstar David Beckham kicked a welcome ball from atop a red double-decker bus.

However, Beijing will be a mighty hard act to follow.