BEIJING — How to top what happened here on a steamy summer night 13, going on 14, years ago?

Remember: precisely at the stroke of 8:08 p.m. on the evening of August 8, 2008, 2,008 drums sounded out the powerful beat of China rising. The drums carried an unmistakable message. We, more than 1 billion people with a great and glorious history, have arrived, to stake our claim among the great powers of the world, now, at the dawn of the 21st century. Take notice, those drums made crystal clear.

On Friday night, back at the Bird’s Nest, the iconic stadium where in 2008 Usain Bolt would go on to light up the track, across Olympic Park from the cube where Michael Phelps would go 8-for-8, Beijing formally became the first city in Olympic history to become host of both the Summer and Winter Games, athletes Zhao Jiawen and Dinigeer Yilamujiang lighting the cauldron — a torch placed in a latticed snowflake-style sculpture (cue: environmental sensibilities).