China has marked the opening of the 16th Asian Games in the southern city of Guangzhou with a lavish show of fireworks. <br /><br />However, it was a group of pandas that stole the show.<br /><br />The 12 giant pandas in the Guangzhou Xiangjiang Safari Park form the "Asian Games Panda Group".<br /><br />The Asian Games, featuring more than 10,000 athletes from 45 countries, is second in scale to the Summer Olympics, last hosted in the Chinese capital two years ago.<br /><br />After six years of planning and billions of dollars worth of investment, Guanghzhou city has been transformed to make sure it plays the perfect host.<br /><br />Al Jazeera's Andy Richardson reports.
