We left the Zoo and headed for the two best known Olympic Venues, the Birds Nest and the Water Cube.
The air was smoggy and gray as usual.
The main site of the Beijing Olympic venues is known as the Olympic Green (奧林匹克公園)
Architectural drawing of the Olympic Green prior to its construction.
Olympic Green Map
As we neared our destination the Olympic Torch building came into view. I had seen the oddly shaped building during our previous outings but no one had ever said what it was. At night it was lit up at the top which really gives it that appearance of at lighted torch. It is actually the Pangu Plaza 7 Star Dragon Hotel, on the Olympic Green.
Next we saw the Birds Nest.
Quite a remarkable piece of architecture.
We parked in a lot southeast of the Birds Nest and were given about twenty minutes to explore the venues. As I said earlier this is a drawback of a 'tour', we get 20 minutes here, 45 minutes at the Great Wall but we have hours at the Silk, Jade & Pearl markets, plus a revisit to the Silk Market. If you were on a shopping tour, that's one thing but we didn't sign up for that. However, when we got to Beijing our tour operators blended two of their tours together and there was a priorities tug-of-war between the two since those who came to just Beijing came on a shopping centered tour.
Anyway, here we were making the most of our twenty minuets, a good portion of it spent simply walking to the venues and back to the buses leaving a few minutes to take photos in front of the venues. In the photo of the map below there is a little red dot in the lower right hand corner that indicates the parking lot. To its right is a photo of athletes with artificial legs celebrating the Paralymipic Games. (The paralympics is short for Parallel Olympics, because it runs at the same time as the Olympic Games but is designed for athletes with physical disabilities. Since the Rome Olympics in 1960 it has been run in the same city.)
We passed this unusual sculpture on the way to the Olympic torch building, a.k.a. the Pangu Plaza 7 Star Dragon Hotel, I have no idea what it signifies, if anything.
Another remarkable feature was the tremendous video screen high on the side of the Pangu Plaza 7 Star Dragon Hotel tower..
Half way to the Torch building, the Pangu Plaza 7 Star Dragon Hotel, and we were in front of the Beijing National Stadium also known as the Bird's Nest (鸟巢).
This building has become known, is the world's largest steel structure and the most complex stadium ever constructed. Its design had to be inspiring and be able to withstand an earthquake. So 'light weight' was combined with strength in 110 000 tons of a new grade of steel, the purest ever developed in China, including 36km of steel struts. It is "one of the key engineering marvels in the world today."
Click these links for (more info) (more photos).
Of course we all had to have our picture taken in front of such a backdrop.
We were now on the expansive plaza between the Birds Nest and the Water Cube.
This tower is the seven story Ling Long Pagoda 玲珑塔 or Linglong Tower (Multifunctional Studio Tower) 玲珑塔 it houses a part of the International Broadcast Center (IBC).
Below is a video of the Olympic Green from the Ling Long Tower VIP suite.
Running the length of the plaza 'the Olympic Axis' are all of these fancy multi-headed light posts.
Pictured below, across 'the Olympic Axis' plaza is the Beijing National Aquatics Center (simplified Chinese: 北京国家游泳中心; traditional Chinese: 北京國家游泳中心)
Affectionately known as the Water Cube and...
These were some of our traveling companions.
Another one of the curious 'Engrish' signs on one of the venues.
There were a couple of these flower towers on the plaza.
A couple more group photos before heading back to the buses.
Mom/Granny still keeping warm and snuggley in her Panda hat.
We passed this group of school children on their outing to inspect the Olympic venues.
Up Next: A visit to the Hutong.
No comments:
Post a Comment