Emblem

The Games's emblem, "Sky, Earth, and Human Beings" (Chinese: 天、地、人), was unveiled in July 2004, a multicolored Chinese character "之" (Chinese: zhī) stylized as an athletic figure in motion. Its red, blue and green colors represent sun, sky and earth.^[5]

Slogan

The slogan was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream".

Fu Niu Lele, mascot of the 2008 Summer Paralympics

Mascots

The mascot was a cartoon cow named Fu Niu Lele (Chinese: 福牛乐乐), roughly meaning "Lucky Ox 'Happy'".^[6]

Theme song

The theme song was "Flying with the Dream" Chinese: 和梦一起飞.^[7] It was performed by Chinese-Tibetan singer Han Hong and Hong Kong singer and actor Andy Lau.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place on September 6, 2008. The pre-ceremony performance was a succession of various musical performances, ranging from military music to folk music and a performance of Ode to Joy.^[8] Following a countdown, a fireworks display signalled the beginning of the ceremony proper. The national flag of China was then raised, in accordance with usual protocol, and the national anthem of China performed.^[8] Performers wearing suits in bright colours paraded round the stadium, as a welcoming ceremony preceding the athletes' entry.^[8] As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, the ceremony included a parade of nations, with a flag bearer for each national team. Contrary to Olympic tradition, the national team of Greece did not enter first, as the Paralympic Games traces its roots to Stoke Mandeville rather than Olympia; the host country, as is customary in both Olympic and Paralympic Games, came last. As Chinese is written in characters and not letters, the order of the teams' entry was determined by the number of strokes in the first character of their respective countries' Simplified Chinese names.^[9] Countries with the same number of strokes in the first character are sorted by those of the next character. This made Guinea (几内亚) the first country to enter as it takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name (几). Following the athletes' parade, a performance took place, divided into chapters and sub-chapters entitled the "Journey of Space" and "Journey of Life"^[8] The sunbird performance entailed Yang Haitao (杨海涛), a singer with a visual impairment, singing about dreams while an acrobat in sunbird costume descended in simulated flight from the air and "awakened the blind singer from his sleep".^[8] The ceremony concludes with Hou Bin, the first Chinese paralympian to be three-time champion consecutively in the same event, lifted himself and his wheelchair up on a rope by strength of arms to the top of Beijing National Stadium, where he lit the cauldron to mark the beginning of the Games.^[10]

Closing ceremony

The 2008 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium. It began at 8:00 pm China Standard Time (UTC+8) on September 17, 2008.^[11]

Sports

Twenty sports were on the program:

Rowing made its first appearance in the Paralympics at these games.

Calendar

●

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

●

Gold medal events

●

Closing ceremony

September		6th Sat	7th Sun	8th Mon	9th Tue	10th Wed	11th Thu	12th Fri	13th Sat	14th Sun	15th Mon	16th Tue	17th Wed	Events
Ceremonies		OC											CC	—
Archery					●	●	●	●	4	3	2			9
Athletics				10	20	17	10	16	20	18	19	25	5	160
Boccia			●	●	4	●	●	3						7
Cycling	Road cycling							15	4	4				46
	Track cycling		5	7	7	4
Equestrian			●	2	4	2	3							11
Football	5-a-side		●		●		●		●		●		1	1
	7-a-side			●		●		●		●		1		1
Goalball			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	2				2
Judo			4	4	5									13
Powerlifting					3	4	2		3	4	2	2		20
Rowing					●	●	4							4
Sailing				●	●	●	●	●	3					3
Shooting			2	2	2	2	2	2						12
Swimming			16	18	16	12	13	16	14	18	17			140
Table tennis			●	●	●	5	11	●	●	●	4	4		24
Volleyball			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1			2
Wheelchair basketball			●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1		2
Wheelchair fencing										3	3	2	2	10
Wheelchair rugby								●	●	●	●	1		1
Wheelchair tennis				●	●	●	●	●	1	3	2			6
Daily medal events			27	41	61	46	45	52	49	56	51	36	8	472
Cumulative total			27	68	129	175	220	272	321	377	428	464	472
September		6th Sat	7th Sun	8th Mon	9th Tue	10th Wed	11th Thu	12th Fri	13th Sat	14th Sun	15th Mon	16th Tue	17th Wed	Events

Participating NPCs

The following National Paralympic Committees sent delegations to compete.^[12] Macau and the Faroe Islands are members of the International Paralympic Committee, but not of the International Olympic Committee; hence they participate in the Paralympic Games but not in the Olympics.

Burundi, Gabon, Georgia, Haiti and Montenegro participated in the Paralympics for the first time.^[1]

Botswana was due to take part, but its single athlete, defending Paralympic champion sprinter Tshotlego Morama, withdrew prior to the Games due to injury. The country's last-minute attempt to field other athletes in her place was rejected, as they did not meet the requirement of having participated in international events.^[13]