Link: Beijing Impression
I happen to pass by the Main Stadium of Beijing Olympics.
Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang
You may see the top and main part is hiding behind the billboard:
Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang
There are many better photos than mine. Like these:
Photography by John
New Impressions
Beijing changed a lot, I would say.
One year ago, I asked: Is Beijing Ready?
Today, with less than one year to the Game, my answer is, maybe.
The infrastructure is much better. Also, there are huge amount of office buildings, and everyone of then is huge. Like the Tsinghua Tech-Park – there are 9 – 12 buildings of the same size (any of them can be an independent tall building in Shanghai) in the same area! The complexity of the buildings is much more than Shanghai. I didn’t take a good camera with me (the previous two was taken by my mobile phone), so I didn’t capture it, but when you see all the glass-walled building in Beijing, I just feel that it is like what Wendy told me about Munich – everything destroyed and rebuilt.
I do regret why I came to Beijing when the VIPs are holding the important congress – the Chang An street was locked up for VIPs, and it turned into a big parking lot. Drivers start to gather out of the road to chat and leaving their cars on the street, and sometimes people protest by horning together – huge noise. I was seated in the taxi for 20 minutes without moving an inch, then I gave up taxi and took subway. This is like that last time when Nanpu Bridge was Closed Shortly. But people in Beijing see it much more frequently, and take it for granted that there is a concept of “Right of Road”.
I like the modern design of that stadium a lot! These are very interesting posts, Jian Shuo. Of course the whole world will be watching that city a year from now. To be able to do so with your early insights about the infrastructure, air pollution (fake clean air — how funny!) and the impact it all is making on the people who live there will add a great deal to our experience of the event from afar. Thanks