Olympic Games ceremonies maestro Ric Birch is leading a creative workshop in Beijing and his young Chinese students are hanging onto his every word. The Australian asks about the biggest change since China's opening up policy and economic miracle.

There is a long pause.

"Now you can buy bicycles in any color," one young man innocently explains.

"Before, bicycles were black, gray or blue but now there's yellow and orange ... any color you want."

Birch did not see that answer coming, but says it reveals the baffling complexity of the Chinese mindset, which Western critics often fail to understand.

"I often think of this when I hear a Western commentator making pronouncements about China - the reality is that significant change takes longer than one generation," Birch says.

The Olympic cauldron rose from a large pool and was lit by Kathy Freeman during the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

"The fact that China has achieved so much in one generation is so extraordinary that we can't compute it. There has never been an equivalent, so we don't have any bench marks."

Birch, the brains behind the largest and some of the most successful live productions ever mounted, says all these issues of rapid change will "come together for me" in the Beijing Games opening ceremony.

Birch is in the Chinese capital this week once again, as advisor to Beijing ceremonies ringmaster and legendary movie maker Zhang Yimou. Dress rehearsals will begin on June 10.

Without revealing any secrets of the opening ceremony, he promises the world will be "gobsmacked".

"Sorry, but I'm not sure how to say that in Putonghua," he jokes.

Zhang is the major creative force behind the opening while Birch advises on specialists for technical and design roles in the Beijing Games opening and closing ceremonies. It is a specialized type of work, which was not exactly taught at the law school Birch attended in his younger days.

Birch's knack at putting on a show was revealed during the spectacular opening and closing of the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games. It attracted the highest TV ratings in Australian history and led to his success at the opening ceremonies for the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.