The Olympic Green () is an Olympic Park in Chaoyang District,

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

constructed for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Since then, the streets around the park have been used for an exhibition

street race Street racing is typically an unsanctioned and illegal form of auto racing that occurs on a public road. Racing in the streets is considered an ancient hazard, as horse racing occurred on streets for centuries, and street racing in automobiles i ...

of the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2011, after a race at Goldenport Park Circuit in the vicinity. It again served as an Olympic Park when Beijing hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Venues

Beijing National Stadium

The Beijing National Stadium () or "Bird's Nest" () is the centerpiece of this project. It hosted the opening and closing ceremonies,

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

, 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 also served as the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Beijing National Aquatics Center

The

Beijing National Aquatics Center The National Aquatics Centre (), and colloquially known as the Water Cube () and the Ice Cube (), is an aquatics center at the Olympic Green in Beijing, China. The facility was originally constructed to host the aquatics competitions at the 2 ...

() or "Water Cube" () 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. Olympic Green map colored 2

Beijing National Indoor Stadium

The

Beijing National Indoor Stadium The National Indoor Stadium (official name) ()Official Beijing Olympics siteNational Indoor Stadium is an indoor stadium that is located in the Olympic Green in Beijing, China. The stadium has a capacity of 20,000 people, and was constructed ...

() 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.

Beijing National Speed Skating Oval

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

Olympic Green Convention Center

The Olympic Green Convention Center, also called the National Convention Center (), held fencing and, the shooting and fencing disciplines of the modern pentathlon. It is also used as the

International Broadcast Center The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) is a temporary hub for broadcasters during major sport events. FIFA World Cup During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in Germany, the IBC in Munich was host to journalists from around 190 countries. The centre wa ...

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 The Olympic Green Hockey Field () was one of nine temporary venues used for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It hosted the field hockey competitions during the Olympics and the football-5-a-side and 7-a-side events during the 2008 Summer Paralympics. ...

hosted the

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

events. It covered an area of with 2 courts and could seat 17,000 spectators. It was deconstructed after the Games.

Olympic Green Archery Field

The

Olympic Green Archery Field The Olympic Green Archery Field () was one of nine temporary venues for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It hosted the archery events. The field occupied 9.22 hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square ...

hosted the archery events. The field occupied and had a capacity of 5,000. It was dismantled after the Games.

Olympic Green Tennis Center

The Olympic Green Tennis Center () hosted the

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

and wheelchair tennis events. It has 16 courts (10 competition, 6 practice) and a capacity of 17,400. It opened on October 1, 2007.

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 Summer 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

The

Digital Beijing Building The Digital Beijing Building () is located northwest of the intersection of Beichen West and Anxiang North roads, on Olympic Green, in the Chaoyang District of Beijing, China. It is a block-shaped building erected to serve as a data center d ...

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. Chinese architect Pei Zhu designed the distinctive , 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. 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 A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or on ...

from the other two.

Ling Long Pagoda

The Ling Long Pagoda or Linglong Tower (''Multifunctional Studio Tower'') (玲珑塔) houses a part of the International Broadcast Center (IBC). It is located near the

2008 Summer Olympics cauldron The 2008 Summer Olympics cauldron is the Olympic flame holder that was used during the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. It was first lit on August 8, 2008, as part of the opening ceremony of the Games of the ...

, on the northwest side of the

Bird's Nest Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, pr ...

.Official Beijing 2008 site
Ma Guoli: High definition signals to enable superb Olympic broadcasting
, October 24, 2007

Beijing Olympic Tower

Olympic Park Observation Tower over trees, Beijing

Completed and opened in 2014, the

Beijing Olympic Tower The Beijing Olympic Tower () is located on Kehui South Road, part of the Olympic Green in the Chaoyang District of Beijing, China. Construction began in 2011, three years after the 2008 Summer Olympics; it was completed in 2014, and opened on A ...

's five circular roofs are meant to evoke the Olympic rings; although it has also been described as "a huge nail". The design of the towers themselves were inspired by blades of grass. It is the sixth tallest observation tower in China and the 22nd highest in the world. Visitors can look out over the park and the entire city of Beijing from all five platforms, ranging from in height.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 40, 00, 10.91, N, 116, 23, 12.01, E, region:CN-11_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title 2008 Summer Olympics 2022 Winter Olympics Chaoyang District, Beijing Olympic Parks Venues of the 2008 Summer Olympics Venues of the 2022 Winter Olympics Parks in Beijing Sports venues in Beijing Sports complexes in China