1800What? Beijing Windows

Beijing will welcome the final stretch of the Olympic Flame relay from August 6 to 8, as part of the global Torch Relay of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The torch will travel through 18 districts, and pass through the hands of 841 torch bearers, taking about 9 hours to complete. On Wednesday, August 7th, the Beijing relay will begin at the Forbidden City and ends at the Temple of Heaven in about four hours. Tuesday relay will start outside Beijing at the famous Badaling section of the Great Wall and end back in Ditan Park in downtown Beijing. In the morning of the August 8th, the torch relay will begin in front of the Peking Man Museum and pass the 8km route to Beijing’s 101 District Middle School, where the torch will then be transported to the National Stadium for the Opening Ceremony later that night.

The Olympic Flame will be carried through Beijing by 841 torchbearers including famous NBA basketball superstar Yao Ming and China’s first gold medalist Xu Haifeng.

The National Stadium Beijing is one of the new landmarks in north Beijing before the 2008 Olympic. This brand new stadium which costs 4 billion RMB (500 million USD) will host the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as  the main track and field competitions of the 2008 summer Olympic.

The stadium can seat as many as 91,000 spectators during the Olympics. The capacity will then be reduced to 80,000 after the Games. It has replaced the original intended venue of the Guangdong Olympic Stadium. The stadium is 330 metres, (1,082 ft) long by 220 metres, (721 ft) wide, and is 69.2 metres,(227 ft) tall. The stadium uses 258,000 square metres (2,777,112 square feet) of space and has a usable area of 204,000 square metres (2,195,856 square feet). It was built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes.The stadium will cost up to 3.5 billion yuan (≈423 million USD).

Beside its functionalities, the Bird’s Nest is a masterpiece of modern architecture as well.  It looks really beautiful and magnificent, especially during night without the cover of smog and dust. Compared with other newly built multi-billion projects, such as the New CCTV Tower or the National Theather of Performing Arts,  the Bird’s Nest has received the least negative feedbacks from the local Beijingers. 

Night View

The Lobby

Inside view

Then Entrance

Turf