The Toronto Star reports that Beijing’s Birds Nest has been turned into a snow park:
Beijing is hosting its own version of the Winter Olympics – though the idea may be on thin ice.
Inside the architectural wonder of the capital’s National Stadium, children on rubber doughnuts race in the snow. Teenagers and adults slide slowly down a ski slope. In the background, a band plays ’90s Chinese rock on a stage flanked by fake snow peaks.
The snow park is the latest effort to create a new life for the stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest. The “Happy Snow and Ice Season” will run all winter at the stadium where Chinese directors staged a stunning opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Now slushy mounds of machine-made snow and a single ski slope occupy the grounds.
