The highly anticipated 31st FISU Summer World University Games kicked off Friday in Chengdu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province. 

The opening ceremony started at 8 p.m. BJT at the 40,000-seater Dong'an Lake Sports Park Stadium. Splendid fireworks burst into the sky, displaying the countdown digits. As the last digit disappeared, hibiscus flowers bloomed, conveying the message that Chengdu, the "City of Hibiscus" welcomes student athletes from across the world.

Various high-tech elements were seen at the opening ceremony. Over 3,000 luminaries were used for the ceremony. They were integrated into one system, and each one of them could be independently controlled. All luminaries are domestically developed low-energy LED, according to the opening ceremony's lighting designer Feng Junzhang.

Wang Ruixiang, general producer of the opening ceremony, said that the production team developed 40 laser gears to achieve the splendid visual effect at the opening ceremony. 

An aerial stunt performance dazzled spectators at the ceremony. Wang said the production team developed an intelligent control device for the performance based on the architectural feature of the stadium to achieve the ideal artistic effects and the vigor and vitality of university students. 

The lighting of the cauldron has always been an important part of the opening ceremony of large-scale sports events. 

The cauldron of the Chengdu Universiade was lit by 31 torch bearers headed by astronaut Ye Guangfu, a Chengdu local who took on China's Shenzhou-13 crewed mission. 

The torch bearers lit the igniter in the stadium, triggering a circle of fireworks around the stadium roof. The fireworks passed through a 200-meter fireworks corridor and ignited the cauldron.

Chen Weiya, general director of the opening ceremony of the Chengdu Universiade, said in an interview with Xinhua before the opening ceremony that the fireworks were made of eco-friendly material. The pyrotechnic composition was low-sulfur and free of heavy metals, which greatly reduced the amount of sulfide produced during discharge.

The whole opening ceremony, from the performances to the ignition of the cauldron, is highly tech-driven, said the director.

Chen, who was also the general director of the opening ceremony of the 2001 Beijing Universiade, said that the use of technology enables more ideas to be realized in limited time and space。 

"(This time) it's very different from the event back in 2001," he said. "We are not depending on using a huge crowd of performers or lots of bulky props like we used to."

The Chengdu Universiade kicked off on Friday and will run through August 8. It features 269 events across 18 sports.