Olympic Green

Subway Line 8 sign.

Looking east, past the national aquatics center and towards the national stadium.

The Olympic Green (北京奧林匹克公園) is an Olympic Park in 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.

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.^{[citation needed]}

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 17,000 (reduced to 6,000 after the Olympics)^{[citation needed]} and is located next to the National Stadium.

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.

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 centre covers an area of 270,000 square metres.

Olympic Green Hockey Field

The Olympic Green Hockey Field hosted the field hockey events. It covers an area of 11.87 hectares with 2 courts and can seat 17,000 spectators. It will be deconstructed after the Games.

Olympic Green Archery Field

The Olympic Green Archery Field hosted the archery events. The field occupies 9.22 hectares and has a capacity of 5,000. It will be converted to green belt 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.

Ling Long Pagoda

Ling Long Pagoda in 2009.

Not to be confused with the Linglong Pagoda in Baitayu, Liaoning Province [2]

The Ling Long Pagoda or Linglong Tower (Multifunctional Studio Tower^[2]) (玲珑塔^[3]) 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.^[4] "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.^[5] 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.^[6][7][8][9] Some international broadcast studios are located in the pods of the tower, offering skyline views as backdrops of Olympic broadcasts. CCTV, BBC,^[10] CBC Television for both French and English networks,^[11] France Télévisions - France 2 & France 3,^[12] Televisa,^[13] and TV Azteca share use of the tower's studio facilities. CBC occupies the fourth pod from the bottom.^[14] BBC occupies the second pod from the bottom.^[15][16] France Television is also on the third floor, with the BBC.^[17] NBC's Today Show tapes from the ground floor.^[18]

See also: :fr:Tour Ling Long

See also

• 2008 Summer Olympic venues

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Official Beijing Olympics site, Ji Lin: Nine aspects to be guaranteed during the Games, 2008-03-12
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Official Beijing 2008 site, Ma Guoli: High definition signals to enable superb Olympic broadcasting, 2007-10-24
5. ^ Beijing Olympics official site, Studio tower to rise from Olympic Green 2007-09-29
6. ^ Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co. News Headlines
7. ^ SportsBusinessDaily, All Around The World: CBC, BBC Prep Their Olympic Coverage Plans
8. ^ BBC Sniffer dogs and security sweeps Jonathan Bramley 24 Jul 08, 03:20 PM
9. ^ The Walrus, Live from Ling Long Pagoda Mitch Moxley August 8th, 2008
10. ^ China Daily, Broadcasters move into Olympic press center, Cui Xiaohuo, 2008-07-09 08:07
11. ^ Globe and Mail, Is this the CBC's last hurrah? WILLIAM HOUSTON 7 August 2007.
12. ^ Humanité, Pékin : faites vos Jeux !, Fernand Nouvet, le 31 juillet 2008
13. ^ Xinhua, Mexican television to send 200 staff members to Beijing 2008, 2008-07-10
14. ^ CBC Television, Olympics Morning, 10:00am EST 11 August 2007
15. ^ CBC, If only the weather co-operates Bernice Chan 4 Aug 2008
16. ^ BBC Sports, Beijing flyby: BBC Sport's Olympic studios
17. ^ Un Web, France Télévisions débourse 70 millions d'euros pour les JO, Vendredi 8 août 2008
18. ^ Huffington Post, Reporting for Volunteer Duty at Beijing's Olympic Broadcast Tower Courtney Woo 30 July 2008

External links

• Olympic map at BBC Sport

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