The 2009 World Games began Thursday in Kaohsiung City with fanfare and hospitality as a demonstration to the world of Taiwan's ability to host a major international event.

Under a hazy summer sky in the southern port city, more than 3,000 athletes and staff from 105 countries and territories marched into the World Games Stadium, a new, eye-catching structure designed by renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito.

Under a firework-lit sky, the World Games opened in a ceremony featuring a series of performances that integrated technology and the arts to highlight the multiple aspects of Taiwan's technological expertise and its traditional culture.

In a distraction to the games opening, the Chinese delegation boycotted the opening ceremony, possibly due to the organisers' arrangement with President Ma Ying-jeou declaring the games open.

As a warm up for the opening ceremony, local children stepped onto the stage shouting "World Games Kaohsiung welcomes you", and then performed Ode to Joy along with a group of German children.

Next, a Taiwanese boy displayed the World Games flag after receiving it from two German brothers during a ceremonial exchange.

Amid a brilliant fireworks display, the long-anticipated ceremony started with a performance by 100 dancers led by 84-year-old local dancer Lee Tsai-er, who danced to the sound of waves among 100 giant spheres, designed to symbolise the passage from one generation to the next.

It was followed by a dance featuring images of butterflies, as well as eagle kites that hovered over the stadium, lit from below.

The show was designed to highlight Taiwan's reputation as a "butterfly kingdom" and to highlight the richness and variety of ocean life around its shores.

This was followed by an explosive performance by indigenous Dawu and Amis people. The Dawu tribesmen carried their traditional canoes onto the stage, while the Amis people depicted a scene of chanting and shouting whilst cutting timber for their houses.

Heralded by the sound of firecrackers, the second part of the ceremony, with a theme of "temple fairs", began as a number of figures dressed as deities filled the stage from all directions under a screen of smoke.

A show staged by more than 200 members of the Pili Puppet Theater also attracted great interest, taking the audience back to the glorious era of puppet shows with special effects produced by LED lighting technology.

The third part of the ceremony, themed "vigorous Taiwan", featured Taiwanese ultra-marathon runner Lin Yi-chieh, who jogged toward the center of the stadium leading a 40-strong team of cyclists on Giant bicycles which circled the stadium in various formations.

The ceremony ended with the launch of more than 3,000 fireworks in a three-minute display that gave the audience the feeling of being right in the middle of the display.

More than 4,000 people were involved in the ceremony, including New Zealand singer Hayley Westenra, the ceremony's lead performer, along with many internationally and domestically renowned artists. Westenra, a soprano and Unicef ambassador, ascended to the world stage with her first internationally released album, Pure, which reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003, and has sold more than two million copies worldwide.

The Kaohsiung City government spent an estimated US$4 million on the ceremony to promote the 11-day sporting extravaganza -- the biggest sporting event the nation has ever hosted.

The quadrennial games feature 31 sports not included in the Olympic Games, such as air sports, archery, billiards, canoe polo, fistball and aerobic gymnastics.

Taiwan invested about $220 million in the World Games. Many Taiwanese see it as a golden opportunity to stretch the limits of the island's international isolation -- it is absent from bodies like the United Nations and is recognised by only 23 countries.

Since Kaohsiung won the right to host the 8th World Games in June 2004, with the support of the central government and private sector, Kaohsiung City was able to raise about $300 million for the construction of sports facilities and preparations to accommodate more than 4,700 athletes and thousands of visitors.