Beijing Beckons: Olympics Draws Nearer!

Beijing Beckons

The Olympics are drawing nearer to its grand inaugral opening on 08/08/08, Friday in Beijing's National Stadium (Bird's Nest) amonst pomp and glory. It is said that Beijing spent more than 40 billion dollars on the Olympics (translates into 1680 billion Rupees roughly) which is a pretty tedious amount. Although it is expected that Beijing will recover all that and more with ticket sales and Infrastructural sales (Metro, Airport). Beijing has built the world's largest dragon shaped Terminal 3 (A, B, C) in addition to the first two terminals at Beijing's new Capital International Airport. It is connected to the newly built railway lines which go into the terminal for quick transport to the Olympic venues. The structure is gigantic just like the National Olympic Stadium or the Bird's Nest which is a framework of criss-crossing steel bars which can host around 90000 seating with a floating capacity of around 30000 people. Even the National Aquatics Centre or the Water Cube is quite large, situated next to the National Stadium and can house 3000 people with 6000 floating capacity. Also the CCTV towers, National Theatre (The Egg) have all been built to create a sense of what Beijing really can do to prove its International standards. Around 3.6 billion people will watch it on TV from all over the world and 1.2 billion people will visit Beijing during the Olympics itself. India will bid for the Olympics in 2020 when its capital New Delhi will be a world class city with the other metros Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore following in its wake. With only four days to spare, all eyes will be on Beijing to witness one of the grandest and costliest Olympics of Olympic History.

Aditya C.R

The Elite Window

National Stadium (Bird's Nest)

National Aquatics Centre (Water Cube)

Beijing Capital International Airport

CCTV Towers, Beijing Central