On Friday, the games of the 30th Olympiad will be underway after Queen Elizabeth II declares London's third Olympic Games open. Before the world's attention focuses solely on the sport, an estimated 4 billion people around the world will be watching the opening ceremony.

An Olympic opening ceremony is a demonstration of national pride for the hosting country and a demonstration of their power and significance on the world's stage.

Beijing in 2008 had CGI fireworks trekking across the sky from Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest Stadium and perfectly synchronized drummers. Los Angeles in 1984 had a man flying into the arena using a jet pack.

Every four years the competition to outdo previous opening ceremonies is intense. The impressive Beijing production in 2008 will be a tough act for London to follow, especially since Beijing's budget was more than double London's.

The theme for the opening ceremony of London Olympics is Isles of Wonder and is inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest. Directed by Oscar winning director Danny Boyle, the show includes a cast of 10,000 and is supposed to transport viewers to a British countryside with horses, chickens and sheep.

In a recent report, the UK's Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said, "I believe we'll be better than the Beijing Games. They did a brilliant job, but it was a Games that was playing to China's strengths, and about China's role in the modern world."

According to him, London has something different to say, "London is one of the great global cities - I believe it's the greatest city on the planet, and this is our chance to showcase that to the whole world."

Sometimes it might be hard to remember that the Olympics are meant to be celebrating the world's greatest sporting event and not be a display of the host countries' power.

Watching the London Games opening ceremony will be a reminder of the moment four years ago when the Olympic torch was lit in Beijing. But we should quit making comparisons and stop deciding which country did better, and concentrate instead on the great sporting event that joins the world together for a few weeks.

The author is a copy editor with the Global Times. ewamanthey@globaltimes.com.cn

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