The Olympic Stadium
On Saturday, I was invited to participate
in a “mini journalists” group,
which would write stories and articles about
the Olympics, leading up to the games. This
was the first such gathering, and it was
about the stadium, known as “The Bird’s
Nest”.
 |
| Beijing National Stadium is known as "The
Bird's Nest." It will have 91,000
seats during the Olympics. Image by Herzog
and de Meuron |
We were to meet with the engineers and the
architects who had designed the stadium,
and we were allowed to interview them while
taking notes. The idea was for us to visit
inside the stadium, but, unfortunately we
were unable to visit it for safety reasons.
There was at least one representative from
each school, but WAB was allowed two. There
were also two journalists from different
newspapers who asked us a few questions about
what we thought of the Olympics and the opportunity
we were being given. The answers were mostly
that it was a very unique experience, and
would be a good way to mix the communities.
The lady in charge was called Zhao Na; she
organized the event, and translated where
necessary. She started by showing us a short
video about the stadium, just to give us
an idea of what we should talk about. Unfortunately,
the video was in Chinese, but I was able
to make out parts of it from what it was
showing. Ms Zhao, then introduced the engineers,
and we were allowed to question them about
the stadium. I had already come up with a
list of suitable questions the night before,
and was very surprised to find that many
of the questions asked by the other students
were similar to my own. The first question
asked was about why it was shaped like a
bird’s nest, and whether there was
any symbolism to the shape. Apparently, the
bird’s nest symbolises humans and nature
together, within the nest; it also encourages
people to protect nature and animals. To
design the stadium, they had architects worldwide
draw ideas, and then they chose their favourite
six. The final idea was created by two Swiss
architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de
Meuron, one of whom happened to be my godfather’s
cousin. The stadium will hold the opening
and closing ceremonies, and the main track
and field events. The building next door
known as the “Cube” will host
all the swimming events, as well as the diving
competitions.
 |
| A view
of the stadium's interior. Image by Herzog
and de Meuron |
The “Bird’s Nest” covers
250 000m2 of land and during the Olympics,
the stadium will have 91 000 seats, though
after the games it will only have 80 000
seats. When the Olympics are finished the
stadium will be used as a sports centre,
and will hold many of Beijing’s competitions
and sports events. The stadium originally
cost 4 billion RMB, but after some economical
changes were made, it only cost ¥3.4
billion. 10 000 workers are working on the
stadium, though it changes due to which part
of the process they are doing. The main part
of construction should be finished this December,
while the decorations will be finished by
May, leaving plenty of time to prepare for
the Olympics in August. The engineers encountered
few problems, but the main one was the amount
of steel used, 40 000 tons of hard steel,
and since it was a new type of steel which
was harder and stronger, it was also harder
to collect, and less “environmentally
friendly”. The biggest problem was
the lack of time, meaning that they had to
be very efficient at all times, to be able
to finish it on time. Another question was
what they would do if the weather was bad;
the answer was that the design itself would
keep out the wind. To deal with the rain,
they came up with the idea of having a transparent
film covering the building, which would mean
that sun could come through to help heat
the stadium, but the rain would be unable
to enter or disrupt the Olympics. Inevitably,
the question of the safety of the building
came up, and we were assured that the stadium
would be able to withstand a level 8 earthquake
without any part of it collapsing. When the
interviewing was over, we drove to the stadium,
and we were allowed to take pictures of the
outside, from around the stadium. We then
drove back to the office, and Ms Zhao gave
us a final speech, asking us about what we
thought of the day, and what we thought they
could improve on.
I really enjoyed this whole experience.
It was a great opportunity to learn more
about the Olympics, and about different cultures
within China. I was particularly interested
because I had several connections to the
Olympics. First, there was my godfather’s
cousin the architect. Secondly, I had recently
met a friend of my father’s who worked
in the Olympic committee. Thirdly,
my father himself was in the New Zealand
Olympic volleyball team, but was unable to
go because of what was happening in Moscow
at the time. I was very keen to find out
more about the Olympics, especially since
it was the first time I was in the chosen
Olympic country, while the Olympics were
going on. I was very happy to learn I had
been chosen, and hope to have more to do
with the Olympics in the future. I think
that the event was very well organised, and
I enjoyed it thoroughly.
by Sophia Stewart |
