The storyline took us through ancient China right up until the modern day, a showpiece full of artistic detail that played well to the 91,000 spectators, and the millions of viewers around the world. Li Ning, suspended by wires, running along the walls of the stadium, was the cherry on top of an elaborate cake loaded with everything. And then of course, more fireworks. Beijing was a spectacle like no other and came at a key moment for the country – one that will most likely never be duplicated.

London 1948

Known as the “Austerity Games”, given that many nations were still reeling economically from the war, the 1948 Games at London’s Empire Stadium at Wembley Park featured a modest opening ceremony, with the royal family in attendance. The whole thing was reportedly done in under an hour and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron was anything but spectacular, except for the release of 7,000 pigeons in a sign of world peace. The message sent, which was also broadcast locally on BBC, was clear – life would go on, societies would rebuild and civilisation would continue moving forward during unprecedented times.

Barcelona 1992

The most spectacularly absurd opening ceremony has to go to the one in Barcelona, Spain. The Spaniards brought in the weirdly beautiful in a splash of artistic creativity ripped from a postmodern painting. Half Picasso, half Blade Runner, half “what the heck is that?”, the show was filled with moments of pure awe. Taking place in the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in front of 67,000 fans, the three-hour-plus extravaganza featured larger-than-life sculptures that brought a sense of magic and wonder to the often tepid and bland ceremony.

Barcelona also capitalised on the emergence of modern television, as the opening ceremony was the first of the “MTV generation”, and although there were no commentators, it was broadcast internationally and quickly became the story of the Olympics, which had until then been about the US men’s basketball “Dream Team”. This was a show that was more like a lucid dream, in a good way, that created some unforgettable memories.

London 2012

First off, if you haven’t seen Mr Bean’s performance at the 2012 opening ceremony, watch it right now. British actor Rowan Atkinson, who has since retired the character, stole the show by basically doing nothing and dragging his feet in the funniest way possible. London was all about star power: the queen, James Bond (Daniel Craig) and more David Beckham than you could shake a stick at.

The whole thing was called “Isles of Wonder” and directed by Academy Award-winning British film director Danny Boyle, who is most famous for films such as Scottish cult flick Trainspotting, zombie apocalypse 28 Days Later and modern Indian fairy tale Slumdog Millionaire. And he somehow found a way to combine all these storytelling elements, including an unforgettable piece on the Industrial Revolution. Beijing 2008 set the bar high and London responded four years later. They may have not reached the heights of their Chinese counterparts, but the fact that they had an estimated 900 million people tune in showed that London is still arguably the world’s city.

Athens 2004

Bringing the modern Games back to the birthplace of the ancient Games was a pretty cool move by the International Olympic Committee, and the Greeks did not disappoint. The show was steeped in history, with a retelling of the many facets of Greek and Roman society, bursting in ancient warfare and philosophical allegories, interspersed with weird moments from the likes of Icelandic singer Bjork.

The show felt like closing a loop, in a way: the Games had not been to Athens since 1896, and bringing it back to its birthplace brought an added sense of cultural impact. It was, in a lot of ways, an opening ceremony 108 years in the making – and that is tough to top.