The curtain goes up on the 2008 Summer Olympics Friday night with what-s expected to be an opening ceremony full of special effects and fanfare at the Bird-s Nest Olympic Stadium.

Over 2,000 athletes from 205 countries including Nigeria will be part of the ceremony that is expected to bring out the best in Chinese culture. It-s expected to start at 8:08 p.m. a special significance to Chinese culture because the number 8 is considered a lucky number since it sounds like the word "prosper" or "wealth" in the native language.

The athletes will compete in 302 events in 28 sports, just one event more than was on the schedule four years ago in Athens, Greece. The men will compete in 165 events. The women have 127 events, while 10 are mixed events.

China-s Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman from Britain have been chosen to sing the theme song. The core part of the ceremony, mostly artistic in nature, will last one hour. It will be divided into two parts - one to highlight China-s age-old civilization and the other to showcase the country-s modern era.

Controversy has followed China since the communist nation was chosen by the International Olympic Committee to host the Games seven years ago. Political issues, pollution and the ability of the media to freely report have all proven contentious in the years and months leading to the Olympics.

But China is hoping that the criticisms will quickly fade and be replaced by the thrill and spectacle of arguably the greatest sports event in the world. The theme is "One World, One Dream," which calls upon the world to unite in the Olympic spirit.

Nigeria will be making its 14th appearance at the Games. At the last edition it only managed to return with two bronze medal. This time around the expectation of Nigerians are that it would surpass its 2004 Athens performance.