BEIJING -- The world waited. And as it watched, mouths dropped.

The Chinese have delivered on a promise to showcase a well-run 2008 Summer Olympics and a modern, vibrant city in what has been pegged as the country's coming-out party.

Just ask any of the several people from the organizing committee for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. They have done a lot of observing here, starting well before the dazzling opening ceremony Aug. 8. They know they have a tough act to follow.

"The demands were extreme here in China, and the delivery of the Games has been quite awesome, quite humbling," Vancouver organizing committee CEO John Furlong said.

Going into the Olympics, the hot-button topics were politics, human rights and the city's notorious air pollution.

Once the competition started, though, it as been all about what happens on the field of play.

There are always good stories at the Olympics. The 2008 version, which concludes tonight with the closing ceremony, is no different:

American swimmer Michael Phelps became the darling of the Games by winning a record eight gold medals.

The Jamaican runners held court, led by men's 100-meter champion Usain Bolt and his world record time of 9.69.

The United States, so dominant in softball, lost to Japan in what could be the final Olympics gold medal game. The sport has been left off the 2012 schedule.

The Chinese have locked up the chase for the most gold medals, while the U.S. is about to win the overall medal count.

Beijing officials built or revamped many of the venues, including the signature "Bird's Nest" National Stadium and, next door, the bubble-wrapped Water Cube swimming facility, both lit in eye-catching ways at night.

"You come to Beijing and they've really done an awful lot of work to make this happen the way it has," cyclist Mike Friedman, of Peters, said. "The venues are spectacular. It's been a pleasure to watch as a spectator and compete in as an athlete."

Mr. Friedman and fellow cyclist Bobby Lea, a Penn State graduate, came to Beijing for a race in December. Even in the time since then, the city came to life.

"We've been so impressed with the job that [the Beijing organizing committee] has done, with cleaning up the city and putting on such a fantastic Games," said Mr. Lea, who teamed with Mr. Friedman to finish 16th in the team track cycling event called the Madison.

Both cyclists had trouble with the smog in December, with Mr. Lea getting ill. Efforts to close factories and restrict driving made a big difference. Even though there were gray days with low visibility, there were no reports of breathing problems or illness among athletes or spectators.

"The weather's been pretty good, and the air has been pretty good," Mr. Friedman said.

Sam Sacksen, of Somerset, needed everything to run smoothly for him to compete in the men's pentathlon, a five-event, three-venue sport that requires 12 hours to complete and lots of coordination to make the most of training time.

"They did an absolutely fantastic job," Mr. Sacksen said. "It's one of the best organized pentathlons I've ever participated in. Everything ran on time, on schedule, which I've honestly never seen before. They did an outstanding job.

"The facilities were top of the line, some of the nicest I've ever been in. I've been nothing but impressed since I got here."

The Chinese fans, who make up the majority of the crowds, have consistently cheered not only their own athletes but everyone else as well.

"It's been unbelievable," said American men's basketball player Chris Paul. "It's been a great welcome for our team. The Chinese fans have been outstanding. You can hear the cheers before the game. It might be louder here than it is at home at times."

Security has seemed to run smoothly with some added conveniences. Security zones in some places were expanded to envelop more than one venue or building, so people can move about a little more freely.

When Beijing officials were unhappy early during the Games with the small crowds in the large Olympic Green area -- which contains the Bird's Nest, Water Cube and several other venues -- they made it easier for the public to enter and apparently got the word out.

After that, plazas and streets in the Olympic Green were often full.

"Our colleagues here have made it as effortless as it's ever going to be," Mr. Furlong said of the security. "I think they have done a very good job of it, and I think we can learn from it."

Although they cleaned up the city, paved the roads, landscaped and kept it spotless and safe during the Games, one thing Beijing organizers could not do was get people to fill the seats at every event.

Tickets sold, but no-shows left the stands at some events look a bit like a ghost town. At times, the Chinese brought in large groups of volunteers in yellow T-shirts to fill vacant sections.

Empty seats are nothing new.

"Ticketing continues to be a big challenge for the Olympic Games for every organizing committee," said Dave Cobb, marketing and communications executive vice president for the Vancouver organizers. "In Beijing it didn't seem the problem was selling tickets but getting people into the seats."

And the Games were not without controversy. Doubts simmered over the ages of China's medal-winning female gymnasts, and the IOC Friday asked China for more documents to prove that all the teens were at least 16.

The Games also started with complaints from journalists that the Chinese government was blocking Internet access as it does for its own citizens, but the government appeared to quickly relent on that issue.

Whatever attention the Beijing Games drew, organizers are satisfied they produced an event that was good enough to quell any criticism over staging it in China.

"I think the Olympic Games staged in China provide a good window, a good showcase for the real China," said Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing organizing committee.

"I think that history will show what China is really like, how China is advancing, progressing along the right path. The history will show how correct the decision the [International Olympic Committee] took in 2001 was in awarding the Games to China."

The Games promoted as High-Tech, Safe and Green were also mostly clean. The IOC conducted more than 4,500 tests and only a handful came back positive.

China's government didn't escape criticism. It set up three protest zones in the guise of allowing free expression, then granted zero permits.

Security was omnipresent, with olive green-clad soldiers standing guard at street corners and venue entrances or marching in formation down sidewalks. Attempted protests in Tiananmen Square or at the Olympic Green -- such as the unfurling of a "Free Tibet" banner -- were quickly shut down and demonstrators were detained or deported.

But overall, China overcame the bad publicity of the Torch Relay and violent crackdown in Tibet and the sorrow of the earthquake in Sichuan to stage the pageant it had so painstakingly prepared.

"China has successfully used the Games to win glory and respect," said Xu Guoqi, a Chinese-American professor and author. "For the last 100 years, China has tried to find a new national identity, and the Olympics is the high point of that search."