About 840 million people from around the globe tuned in to watch the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, making it the most watched sporting event in history.

I hope you were one of them because it was an amazing $300 million spectacle that condensed 5,000 years of Chinese history into the most spectacular visual imagery I have ever seen.

30,000 glimmering rockets that torched the sky, 11,000 elaborately costumed dancers, 2008 drummers in perfect unison, and Cirque du Soleil-style trapeze artists were all intricately choreographed using some of the most sophisticated cutting-edge technology in the world.

The opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics was an awe-inspiring spectacle viewed by an estimated 840 million people around the world.

The centerpiece of the event was a 480 by 72-foot screen with 44,000 embedded LED beads that was laid at the center of the Bird Nest stadium. That screen, combined with a ring of LED panels that surrounded the upper deck, delivered a light and multimedia video show the scale of which has never been seen.

Here is the part that may surprise you. All of the technology that was used at the opening ceremonies was developed by Chinese companies!

Nothing from brainiacs in Silicon Valley, the ingenious engineers in Germany, or the king of electronics, Japan.

Nothing but pure 100% Chinese technology.

High-tech Fuels the Chinese Economic Juggernaut

As an investor, that should get your attention because all that Chinese technological expertise means there is a ton of Chinese investment opportunity, too.

It is a huge mistake to think of China as nothing but a source of cheap merchandise such as tennis shoes, t-shirts, and toasters.

China has transformed itself into an innovative leader of technological advances and it boasts some of the fastest-growing tech companies in the world. If you invest in tech stocks, you absolutely need to keep China on your radar screen. And as I walked around Beijing during the Olympics, I could see many of them on clear display:

• One of the very first things I noticed when I stepped off my plane in Beijing was hundreds of Chinese watching live streaming video of the Olympics on their China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) cell phones. With more than 300 million subscribers, China Mobile is the largest cell phone company in the world and is delivering some of the most innovative wireless services in the globe.

• Those Chinese unable to watch their favorite Olympic events live were packed into one of thousands of internet cafes in Beijing to watch taped video clips on Bidu.com (NYSE:BIDU), which is growing much faster than Google or Yahoo. With 250 million internet users, China has more internet users than any country in the world, including the U.S.

• Security is tighter than a drum during the Olympics. Chinese soldiers are conspicuously stationed around all the major Beijing tourist spots. Not so conspicuous are thousands of security cameras and monitoring devices, many of which were installed by a world leader in high-tech security, China Security & Surveillance Technology (NYSE:CSR).

Hundreds of millions of Chinese are riding the wave of their emerging nation’s high-tech bonanza.

Those are just three examples of Beijing-based technology companies that are playing important roles in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Not only are they world leaders in the high-tech industry, but they’re also companies that I am personally visiting during this trip.

In fact, I am concentrating my research on three industries: technology, agriculture (see my August 5 column) and real estate (see my July 29 article).

Those are three sectors that I believe still have years, if not decades, of growth ahead of them.

Over the next nine days, I will be visiting company after company to find the very best of the best that China has to offer. So stay tuned!

Best wishes,

Tony

P.S. Before I leave China, I will be sending my Asia Stock Alert subscribers my #1 recommendation. Not only will I name the company, and give all the important background details … I’ll also provide specific trading instructions.

If you’re not a subscriber, sign up now for a risk-free trial to Asia Stock Alert. If you subscribe by 3 p.m. on September 12, you’ll get my new China recommendation the minute I fire it off, plus you’ll be able to immediately download six special reports on other great Asian stocks. Click here for all the details.

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Last 5 posts by Tony Sagami

• World Bank Calls China: A “Ray of Hope” - April 14th, 2009
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• Following the Warren Buffett of China - February 17th, 2009
• Gaming stocks down on their luck - January 20th, 2009
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