The partisan crowd was quite an eye-opener for me. Every GB goal was met by a fairly quiet, respectful clap which you could easily fail to notice if you weren't completely attentive. Every China goal, meanwhile, was met with a deafening roar and cacophony of crowd noise, and it was soon clear that you didn't even need to score for this to happen - Chinese near-misses apparently deserved the same reaction, with red China flags waved enthusiastically all around the stadium.
Official Beijing volunteers in distinctive yellow t-shirts and caps filed in after the match had started, and took over whole sections of the crowd near the field of play. While they were obviously going mad for the home team, it also helped build an exciting atmosphere and underlined the drama on court.
Quite an experience for day 1 of competition. In the end the gap between the two teams grew and GB cruised to victory. Bodes well for London 2012, where the home crowd may well propel them to even higher scores.
My Olympics
Follow your favourite countries and sports