ASIAD 2023: Closing ceremony and unforgettable impressions

The 75-minute ceremony honored the athletes, volunteers, and Chinese culture, country, and people. On the evening of October 8, the “Big Lotus” stadium transformed into an “Asian Games Garden.” Many wonderful, touching moments and unforgettable memories of the Hangzhou Asian Games were also recreated in the form of short films at the closing ceremony.

Ceremonies and performances were held alternately during the closing ceremony. The entire event included two performances “Brilliant Moments”, “Lotus Blossoms” and the closing performance “From Heart to Heart” along with four excerpts: “Meeting at the Asian Games”, “Wonderful Moments”, “Touching Moments” and “Memories of Hangzhou”. Of which, “Wonderful Moments” was only 120 seconds long but featured all athletes from 45 countries and territories.

The program also specially honored the athletes who achieved impressive results at this year's Games, and the closing ceremony also paid special tribute to the 376,000 volunteers who contributed significantly to the success of this year's event.

At this event, through the combination of reality and virtuality, the beauty of technology continues to be promoted, a digital lawn appears for the first time with nearly 40,000 luminous points hidden in the lawn, the performance creates patterns such as flowers, waves and patterns combined with the performance, creating a large and beautiful garden in the golden autumn of October. At the same time, the Organizing Committee also uses AR technology so that the audience sitting in front of the TV can actually see this beautiful garden.

At the end of the ceremony, the digital torchbearer who lit the ASIAD flame together with Olympic champion, swimmer who won the 19th ASIAD gold medal, Uong Thuan, created a flame extinguishing scene for the 2023 ASIAD.

The performance program of the closing ceremony of ASIAD 2023 was participated by more than 2,100 people, practiced continuously since July, went through more than 200 rehearsals and preliminary rehearsals... bringing an impressive performance event on the night of October 8.

Over the past 16 days, 12,407 athletes from 45 countries and territories have gathered at the 2023 ASIAD, demonstrating the vibrant and exciting performances of sports. The athletes have put in all their efforts, challenged their limits and surpassed themselves, setting many competition records and world records, building bridges through sports, demonstrating the connection between people.

The wonderful moments, joyful images and smart technologies inside and outside the stadium show that the 2023 ASIAD is not only a place for modern sports and traditional Asian sports culture to exchange but also a big party filled with passion, vitality, joy and sharing. The closing ceremony also marked the handover ceremony to the host country of the 2026 ASIAD, Japan.

The 19th Asian Games took place in Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8 with 12,407 athletes from 45 countries and territories. The Games featured 40 sports (61 disciplines) in 481 events. This was the third Asian Games hosted by China, after Beijing 1990 and Guangzhou 2010. Host China topped the medal tally with 201 gold medals, 111 silver medals and 71 bronze medals; breaking the record of 199 gold medals they won at the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

The Vietnamese Sports Delegation has officially ended its journey at ASIAD 2023 in 21st place on the overall rankings with 3 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 19 bronze medals. The gold medals came from shooting, sepak takraw and karate.

The 2023 Asian Paralympic Games will take place from October 22 to 28.