Olympic Green

Subway Line 8 sign.
Looking east, past the national aquatics center and towards the national stadium.

The Olympic Green (Simplified: 北京奥林匹克公园, Traditional: 北京奧林匹克公園, Pinyin: Běijīng Àolínpǐkè Gōngyuán) is an Olympic Park in Chaoyang District, Beijing, China constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Since then, the streets around the park have been used for an exhibition street race of the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2011, after a race at Goldenport Park Circuit in the vicinity. It will again serve as an Olympic Park when Beijing hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Venues

Beijing National Stadium

Beijing National Stadium

The Beijing National Stadium (国家体育场) or "Bird's Nest" (鸟巢) is the centerpiece of this project. It hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, and football finals of the Games. The stadium has room for 91,000 spectators, but the capacity was reduced to 80,000 after the Olympics. It will be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Beijing National Aquatics Center

Beijing National Aquatics Center

The Beijing National Aquatics Center (国家游泳中心) or "Water Cube" (水立方) hosted the swimming, diving and synchronized swimming events. It has a capacity of 6,000 (17,000 during the 2008 Olympics) and is located next to the National Stadium. It will be the site of the curling competitions during the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Beijing National Indoor Stadium

The Beijing National Indoor Stadium (国家体育馆) or "the Fan" held the handball, artistic gymnastics and trampolining events. With a capacity of 19,000, it was the main indoor arena used during the Games.

National Speed Skating Oval

The National Speed Skating Oval is an arena that will be built for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Olympic Green Convention Center

The Olympic Green Convention Center, also called the National Convention Center (国家会议中心), held fencing and, the shooting and fencing disciplines of the modern pentathlon. It is also used as the International Broadcast Center and the Main Press Center (for conventions and exhibitions). The center covers an area of 270,000 square meters.

Olympic Green Hockey Field

The Olympic Green Hockey Field hosted the field hockey events. It covered an area of 11.87 hectares (29.3 acres) with 2 courts and could seat 17,000 spectators. It was deconstructed after the Games.

Olympic Green Archery Field

The Olympic Green Archery Field hosted the archery events. The field occupied 9.22 hectares (22.8 acres) and had a capacity of 5,000. It was dismantled after the Games.

Olympic Green Tennis Center

The Olympic Green Tennis Center (北京奥林匹克公园网球场) hosted the tennis and wheelchair tennis events. It has 16 courts (10 competition, 6 practice) and a capacity of 17,400. It opened on October 1, 2007.[1]

Promenade

The park itself, outside of the venues constructed on the Olympic Green, hosted some of the athletic events at the 2008 Games. These included the racewalk events, where the loops occurred on the Olympic Green, and the portion of the marathons just outside the National Stadium.

Other parts

Olympic Village

The Beijing Olympic Village housed all the participating athletes. The village is made up of 22 6-story buildings and 20 9-story buildings.

Digital Beijing Building

A dark gray block-like building towering over an intersection, with narrow, sometimes diagonal cracks in one side and large gaps in the other
The Digital Beijing Building

The Digital Beijing Building served during the Games as the data center. It was the only building on the Green at the time of the Olympics that was not an event venue. Since then it has been converted into a museum of the Digital Olympics and exhibition space for digital technology companies.[2]

Chinese architect Pei Zhu designed the distinctive 57-metre-high (187 ft), 11-story building near the Aquatic Centre and Convention Center. At the time of the Games, it was the only major facility designed by a Chinese architect.[3] It is meant to explore the relationship between digital forms and traditional Chinese aesthetics, meant to evoke a microchip from two of its façades and a bar code from the other two.[4]

Ling Long Pagoda

Ling Long Pagoda in 2009.
Not to be confused with the Linglong Pagoda in Baitayu, Liaoning Province

The Ling Long Pagoda or Linglong Tower (Multifunctional Studio Tower[5]) (玲珑塔[6]) houses a part of the International Broadcast Center (IBC). It is located near the Olympic Cauldron, on the northwest side of the Bird's Nest Stadium.[7] "Ling Long" (玲珑) means delicate, and is referred to as the Delicate Tower in Chinese. The permanent structure is a three-sided tower. The tower contains 6 occupiable pods with open space in between. One of the pods displays the Olympic rings. It is 128m tall, with 7 occupiable floors, each an equilateral triangle.[8] The floors are subdivided into two levels. The glass-walled pods are held up by three supporting ribs at the three corners. The tower is operated by Beijing Olympic Broadcasting.[9][10][11][12] Some international broadcast studios are located in the pods of the tower, offering skyline views as backdrops of Olympic broadcasts. CCTV, BBC,[13] CBC Television for both French and English networks,[14] France Télévisions - France 2 & France 3,[15] Televisa,[16] and TV Azteca share use of the tower's studio facilities. CBC occupies the fourth pod from the bottom.[17] BBC occupies the second pod from the bottom.[18][19] France Television is also on the third floor.[20] NBC's Today Show tapes from the ground floor.[21]

Olympic Park Observation Tower

A narrow tower with several round, wider flat-roofed tops seen against a pale blue sky above a group of trees in early spring
Olympic Park Observation Tower in early 2014

Completed and opened in 2014, the 246.8-metre-tall (810 ft) Olympic Park Observation Tower's five circular roofs are meant to evoke the Olympic rings; although it has also been described as "a huge nail".[22] The design of the towers themselves were inspired by blades of grass.[23] It is the sixth tallest observation tower in China and the 22nd highest in the world.[22] Visitors can look out over the park and the entire city of Beijing from all five platforms, ranging from 186 to 243 metres (610 to 797 ft) in height.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ "Digital Beijing Building, Beijing, China". Mondo Arc (44). Aug–Sep 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  3. ↑ Goldberger, Paul (2009). Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture. New York: Monaceilli Press. p. 44. ISBN 9781580932646. Retrieved 20 December 2014. Although China's wealth owes much to its burgeoning export industries, for the Olympics the country has been contento to play the reverse role, buying the most futuristic architecture the rest of the world has to offer, rather than showcasing native talent. The work of Chinese architects has been relegated to a jumble of functional but uninspiring buildings ... An important exception is Digital Beijing, a control center on Olympic Green, designed by a Chinese firm, Studio Pei Zhu
  4. ↑ Miller, Rich (6 June 2008). "Digital Beijing: The Olympic Data Center". Data Center Knowwledge. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  5. ↑ Official Beijing Olympics site, Ji Lin: Nine aspects to be guaranteed during the Games, March 12, 2008
  6. ↑ 新华社, 图文-奥林匹克多功能演播塔 不停变换身姿秀丽绚烂, 年07月30日21:42
  7. ↑ Official Beijing 2008 site, Ma Guoli: High definition signals to enable superb Olympic broadcasting, October 24, 2007
  8. ↑ Beijing Olympics official site, Studio tower to rise from Olympic Green September 29, 2007
  9. ↑ Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co. News Headlines
  10. ↑ SportsBusinessDaily, All Around The World: CBC, BBC Prep Their Olympic Coverage Plans
  11. ↑ BBC Sniffer dogs and security sweeps Jonathan Bramley July 24, 2008
  12. ↑ The Walrus, Live from Ling Long Pagoda Mitch Moxley August 8, 2008
  13. ↑ China Daily, Broadcasters move into Olympic press center, Cui Xiaohuo, 2008-07-09 08:07
  14. ↑ Globe and Mail, Is this the CBC's last hurrah? WILLIAM HOUSTON August 7, 2007.
  15. ↑ Humanité, Pékin : faites vos Jeux !, Fernand Nouvet, le 31 juillet 2008
  16. ↑ Xinhua, Mexican television to send 200 staff members to Beijing 2008, July 10, 2008
  17. ↑ CBC Television, Olympics Morning, 10:00am EST August 11, 2007
  18. ↑ CBC, If only the weather co-operates Bernice Chan August 4, 2008
  19. ↑ BBC Sports, Beijing flyby: BBC Sport's Olympic studios
  20. ↑ Un Web, France Télévisions débourse 70 millions d'euros pour les JO, Vendredi 8 août 2008
  21. ↑ Huffington Post, Reporting for Volunteer Duty at Beijing's Olympic Broadcast Tower Courtney Woo July 30, 2008
  22. 1 2 "Beijing Tower of Olympic Forest Park to open". ecns.cn. August 19, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  23. 1 2 "Industry Newsletter". Penetron. October 2013. Retrieved December 3, 2014.

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Coordinates: 40°00′10.91″N 116°23′12.01″E / 40.0030306°N 116.3866694°E / 40.0030306; 116.3866694

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