The event mixed China's millennia of history and hi-tech present as a modern global powerhouse.
The four-hour event, meticulously choreographed by Zhang Yimou, China's most celebrated film director, ended with the final torch bearer, the former Olympic gymnastics champion Li Ning, being hoisted aloft by invisible wires.
In the style of one of Zhang's martial arts films, he then "ran" along the rim of the stadium's roof before igniting the vast Olympic cauldron as thousands of fireworks lit up the skyline.
But however spellbinding the show, it remained clear that pressure over human rights and other political issues would not disappear as organisers had hoped.
A pro-Tibet group said it had unsuccessfully tried to stage a protest at the ceremony, while demonstrators marched on Chinese embassies in several other countries.
In front of a crowd of 91,000, among them more than 80 heads of state, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, launched the event to a huge cheer.
Marking the culmination of seven years' work including a comprehensive, and at times controversial, revamping and clean-up of the Beijing, the ceremony kicked off a Games billed as China's coming out party as a major world power.
The Olympics, which come with an estimated ?20bn bill, have sparked a fervour of patriotic pride among many of China's people. Thousands of Beijingers thronged the city's streets, waving flags and chanting their country's name.
At once a glittering, showy extravaganza and a patriotic demonstration of pride in 5,000 years of recorded history, the opening ceremony was timed to start at eight minutes past 8pm on August 8, reflecting the number's status in China as a bearer of good fortune.
It took in everything from giant written scrolls and a representation of the Great Wall formed by thousands of performers to spacemen floating from the stadium roof, symbolising one of China's most recent technological achievements.
The event then moved on to the parading of the national teams, ordered according to the number of strokes needed to write their names in Chinese characters.
The Chinese contingent, cheered wildly amid fervent hopes the country could top the medals table for the first time, was led out by the nation's most celebrated sports star, the 7ft 6in basketball star Yao Ming.
The US team chose the Sudan-born 1,500-metre runner Lopez Lomong, who has voiced his opposition to China's support for the regime in Khartoum, which has been condemned internationally for its actions in Darfur.
Once the teams had paraded, and with the ceremony running well over its scheduled three and a half hours, the Games were formally declared open by Hu and the Olympic flag hoisted on a giant pole adjoining the Chinese emblem.
Finally, the torch was brought into the stadium at the end of an epic – and protest-hit – progress around the world.
A final relay of former Chinese Olympic gold medallists saw the flame passed to Li, who won three gold medals, two silver and one bronze at the 1984 LA Olympics.
But away from the stadium, protests continued. A pro-Tibet group said three US demonstrators had been detained near the site after planning to hold up Tibetan flags during the ceremony.
Other protesters tried to storm Chinese consular offices in Nepal and India, while smaller demonstrations took part in London, Brussels and elsewhere.
The US president, George Bush, kept the issue high on the agenda when he called for freedom of expression and religion just hours before joining Hu for the ceremony.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, another guest at the event, told French TV he had raised the issue at a lunch meeting with Hu and the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao.
Games organisers will be hoping for a change in the weather to disperse the smog that has hung over the stadium and the city in recent days, while the issue of drugs is another cloud on the horizon.
不知道妳要多長，自己縮短壹下吧呵呵