Birds Nest

One of the things we did today was visit the birds nest stadium in Olympic square. We also visited the water cube, which is where the swimming competition for the 2008 Beijing Olympics took place. But my focus was on the bird's nest, which is such a unique stadium, unlike anything I have ever seen. When I looked at it I wondered if there was a certain pattern that was followed when it was built, as it looks like a completely random structure. The stadium was also built for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, used for track and soccer and holds 90,000 people. I found it sort of odd that this extravagant stadium was built solely for the Olympics. Our tour guide, Lina, told us that it is hardly used for sporting events today. In the United States in the past, we have also built stadiums for the Olympics, however, unlike China, we have professional teams occupying and utilizing these stadiums after they are built, such as in Atlanta. To me it seems fairly inefficient to build a stadium and not continue to utilize it after the Olympics (for which was its initial purpose), especially because it took six years to build and was extremely costly. In the past I have learned that the Chinese are usually very efficient when it comes to business. This stadium is pretty much rendered useless for any sort of profits because the only events that go on there are not large enough to fill the 90,000 seats. It has become more of a tourist attraction, filled with gift shops. Yet, it does illustrate the pride and dedication the Chinese show when inviting the world into their capital city.