As one of the world’s emerging superpowers, China was placed in the limelight as she hosted the Beijing Summer Olympics last year. The Olympics, which is held once every four years, is participated by about 120 nations, when athletes compete in various sports, from basketball to soccer, from track-and-field to javelin throwing, from swimming to diving, you name it.
After being selected to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing did not waste time in selecting the site where future participants will stay and where most of the events will be played. Both the city and the national government gathered the best team of engineers, architects and landscape designers to jumpstart this magnanimous project which would definitely pour in big investments to the country. Aside from this, international hospitality industries started to set up their branches of Beijing hotels in anticipation of the visitor surge to be brought by the event.
The government planned to use a site wide enough to put the various stadiums and complexes in one place. This would increase productivity of the players while reducing travel time from one venue to another. Located at the north end of the central axis of Beijing, the planners named the area the Olympic Green, where thirty-one sporting venues can be seen.
Most of the hotels in Beijing are accessible from the Olympic Green because they are located near the city’s cultural and business districts. A number of important sporting venues are located within the Green. The most notable of these is the Beijing National Stadium. Inspired by the beauty and intricacy of Chinese ceramics, the designers were finally able to construct it. Known as the ‘Bird’s Nest,’ it was the venue for the football and athletics finals as well as in the opening and closing ceremonies where 91,000 people attended.
Another exceptional edifice is the Beijing National Aquatics Center, famously known as the ‘Water Cube. Based on the structure of soap bubbles, it consisted of air-filled pockets made with translucent plastic which illuminate with different colors at night. This was the venue for synchronized swimming, diving and swimming competitions.
The Beijing National Indoor Stadium, nicknamed ‘The Fan’ due to its design resembling a traditional Chinese holding fan, hosted Artistic Gymnastics, Tramp lining and Handball events. Also within the Green is the Convention Center, a 270,000 square-meter structure which was used for Fencing and the Modern Pentathlon. It was also the International Broadcast Center where the press covered the entire games.
The athletes, too, resided in the Beijing Olympic Village. Resembling some of the hotels in Beijing, it is made up of twenty-two six-storey buildings and twenty nine-storey buildings.
Beijing hotels were having good occupancy rates during the games. The city and the country were the stars of the show. Indeed, China and its people were in the limelight. People can finally say that the Sleeping Dragon has finally awakened!
E. Larson is a long-time expatriate in Beijing, China. He works closely with the Xijiao Beijing Hotel and many other beijing hotels. Go to his website on the Xijiao Beijing Hotel here.
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