American Gabriel Haydu and his eight fellow Camp Adventure counselors felt a bit uncomfortable when they first entered the ritzy Block 8 entertainment complex.

Cross-cultural kiss: These American and Chinese youngsters get into the Olympic mood on opening night at Wangfujing.

They had come to catch the end of the Beijing Games opening ceremony, but their appearances were drawing stares.

Most members of the group were bespectacled with sunglasses shaped like the five Olympic rings; some had painted white stars on their faces; and many wore red headbands reading: "Zhong guo jia you (Go China)!"

"We were all made up and everyone there was in their blazers drinking Grey Goose Vodka," says Haydu. "But we seemed to mingle all right (before long) everyone loved us, and we were able to spread some Olympic spirit."

Immediately after the ceremony ended, two bikini-clad go-go dancers leapt atop the bar counter and began waving Chinese national flags while joggling their hips. The nightspot suddenly erupted into a dance party.

"It was amazing," says Haydu.

Hours before the opening ceremony began, he had told China Daily as he stood at The Place - a massive shopping plaza-cum-Olympic live site - he hoped the night would be "crazy and wild - I'm hoping for a case of Olympic fever".

Hundreds of Chinese and international tourists flock to the Wangfujing plaza square in downtown Beijing to watch the opening ceremony on a large screen.

He says he got his wish and spent the next day "recovering" at home watching the Games. Some of the other group members left the bar around 2 am to catch 5:20 am flights back to the United States.

Twenty-one-year-old American Brady Prim says the group got "geared up" and took to the streets of the capital "to make monumental memories". Such memorable moments were made - but not only for themselves. They were at most times surrounded by semicircles of photo-snapping Chinese.

"Parents (were) shoving their kids at us to take pictures the whole day," laughs 21-year-old American Jacqui Carrington.