What people are saying about the Paralympic Closing Ceremony

"These are the greatest Paralympic Games ever.''

That's Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, saying what IOC president Jacques Rogge for whatever reason would not: the greatest ever.

The Paralympic Closing Ceremony was last night, bringing all this Olympic craziness to an end. Expect three backdated entries later about the three events I attended. For now, here's what people are saying about the show (and this is a short list because most of my China blogging compadres (i.e. the many on my RSS) haven't written a word about these games; thus, you, China Daily, make the cut):

• New York Times pictures: "...a visual record of the final piece in the quartet of spectacular opening and closing performances staged with such grace and precision at the Olympics and Paralympics in Beijing." Almost as good as the Paralympics Opening Ceremony.
  
  
• A straight news story from AFP: "The legacies of the Paralympics were "huge and far-reaching" both in terms of improved access and changed attitudes, said Wang Wei, the vice-president of organising committee BOCOG."
  
  
• Stephen Wade, AP -- getting lots of play (SI, USA Today, Yahoo, etc.).
  
  
• Blogging for China: "By most accounts, the Paralympics - including the events, the organization, the coordination, and of course the performances - is as successful, if not more successful, than the main Olympics event."
  
  
• China Daily: "Foreign media and world leaders Wednesday lavished praise on the Beijing Paralympic Games and its closing ceremony."
  
  
• A blog post from Sports N Style blog, with two videos.
  
  
• Beijing Boyce bids goodbye to it all.
  

And two non-Closing Ceremony stories that are related to the Paralympics: Shanghaiist introduces us to swimmer He Junquan, and Xinhua speculates on the fate of China's guide dogs, like Lucky.

I'll be back with much more later.