2008 Paralympic Summer Games

XIII Paralympic Games

"Sky, Earth, and Human Beings", emblem of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games
Host city	Beijing, China
Motto	同一个世界 同一个梦想 (One World, One Dream)
Nations participating	146
Athletes participating	3,951
Events	472 in 20 sports
Opening ceremony	September 6
Closing ceremony	September 17
Officially opened by	President Hu Jintao
Paralympic torch	Hou Bin
Paralympic stadium	Beijing National Stadium
Summer:
<  Athens 2004 London 2012  >
Winter:
<  Turin 2006 Vancouver 2010  >

The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (Chinese: 第十三屆残疾人奥林匹克运动会), the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao.

3,951 athletes from 146 countries took part. This was the largest ever number of nations at the Paralympics (ten more than in Athens), and five countries competed for the first time. China fielded more athletes than any other country. The slogan for the 2008 Paralympics was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream" (simplified Chinese: 同一个世界 同一个梦想; traditional Chinese: 同一個世界 同一個夢想 Pinyin Tóng yīge shìjìe tóng yīge mèngxiǎng, lit. "One World, One Dream"). China dominated the medal count finishing with 89 gold medals and 211 total medals, more than double the next-ranked NPC in both cases.

339 Paralympic records and 279 world records were broken.

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Philip Craven declared the Games "the greatest Paralympic Games ever."

Nineteen competition venues—seventeen in Beijing, one in Hong Kong, and one in Qingdao—were selected for the 2008 Summer Paralympics.

The emblem, "Sky, Earth, and Human Beings" (Chinese: 天、地、人), was a multicolored Chinese character "之" (Chinese: zhī) stylized as an athletic figure in motion. The red, blue, and green in the emblem represent sun, sky, and earth.

The slogan was the same as the 2008 Summer Olympics, "One World, One Dream".