Olympics Venues

May 29, 2008

As the much awaited Beijing Summer Olympics is nearing (official date to open is on 8/8/08 at 8:08:08 p.m, as the number is one of the most auspicious number in Chinese culture), one should know to stay strategically near the venues of the games you’ll want to watch. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend any games so I’ll just take note for other people’s reference.

The stadiums are neatly constructed in a way that is convenient.

Number 1 in the map is the National Stadium which is famous for it’s Bird’s nest look. It has the capacity of around 91,000! This will be the one use for the opening and closing ceremonies.

National Aquatics Center (2) “Watercube” is another famous new venue which will host competitions like Swimming, Diving, Synchronized Swimming.

National Indoor Stadium (3) will be the venue for Olympic Artistic Gymnastics, Trampoline, and Handball competitions and the Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball competition.

Beijing Shooting Range Hall (4) which is also located in the district called Olympic Green will be the venue for qualifications and finals of 11 shooting events, consisting of all 10-meter, 25-meter, and 50-meter range shooting events.

Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium (5) will surely be packed with NBA and basketball fans.

Laoshan Velodrome (6) will be the venue for cycling competition.

Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park (7) will be the venue for Rowing, Canoe/Kayak — Flat-water, Canoe/Kayak — Slalom, Marathon Swimming.

Wrestling matches will be held at China Agricultural University Gymnasium (8).

Peking University Gymnasium(9) will hold the Table Tennis competitions.
http://2008.sina.com.cn/en/venues/

Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium (10) will be the venue for Judo and Taekwando.

Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium(11) will hold Badminton matches and Rhythmic Gymnastics.

Tennis matches will be held in Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Court (12).

I just highlighted the new venues. You can check out this site and this site for the complete listing and descriptions (whew!)

From the map I researched, the nearest hotel is Continental hotel, I also noticed that you can also rent apartments in Haidian District which is much nearer than staying near the center (where the Forbidden city is located–main tourist area).

You can check out these links for apartments/hostels:
Beijing Olympic Accommodation Service(hostels+hotels+apartment rental)

Olympic Packages:

Beijing Olympic Package(Accommodation+ Event Tickets)
Beijing 2008 Olympic Tour Pakage

By the way, some other games will be held in other cities in China like Shanghai, Hongkong, Tianjin, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao.

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