Chinese President Xi Jinping has officially announced the opening of the 2nd Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, East China on Saturday night.

Despite the downpour that marred the opening of what is considered as an elite sporting event for young people from all over the world, the 12-day sporting event in Nanjing went on with more than 4,000 people participating in the opening ceremony performance.

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President Xi officially announced the opening of the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games in front of the thousands of participants from around the world.

The opening ceremony was also attended by various world leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Presidents Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Epeli Nailatikau of Fiji, Abdulla Yameen of Maldives, Filip Vujanovic of Montenegro, Tan Keng Yam of Singapore and Prime Minister of Vanuatu Joe Natuman.

With President Xi's official opening, the flag of the Olympics was is escorted by eight famous Chinese athletes - Ren Cancan, Wu Minxia ,Liu Xiang, Lei Sheng, Wu Jingyu, Wang Liqin, Zhang Xi and Qiu Jian - and then passed over to young athletes.

International Olympic Committee Chief Thomas Bach showed that the Nanjing Olympic Games was for the youth by asking some representatives of participating countries to take selfies with him on stage.

Selfie is a technology slang which means taking a self-portrait using gadgets, including mobile phones and tablets.

The Youth Olympic Games, which is based on that of the Olympic Games, was first held in Singapore in 2010.

This year, the Nanjing Youth Olympics will have at least 3,787 athletes, aged 15 to 18, from around the world competing in various sports. China has the largest delegation of athletes with 120.

The 2nd Youth Olympic Games in China will feature four performance games, namely rock climbing, martial arts, skateboarding and roller skating.

The opening ceremony concluded with the singing of the theme song for the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games “Light the future”. Korean actor Kim Soo Hyun, Chinese singers Jane Zhang, Zhang Jie and a Russian singer sang the theme song on stage.

Tags2nd Youth Olympic Games, Nanjing Olympic Games