From Guardian Unlimited:
On the northern outskirts of Beijing, an army of migrant workers is twisting and welding a 100,000-tonne tangle of steel into a stadium-sized bird’s nest. A short sprint away, the scaffold wrapping of a vast swimming centre has been partly peeled away to reveal a translucent bubble-like coating. Everywhere thickets of cranes are raising up sports halls, athletes’ dormitories and guest hotels.
The 2008 Olympics is shaping up to be one of the most spectacular festivals in human history – which could make it a hard act to follow for London in 2012. But on her first visit to China as minister for the Olympics, Tessa Jowell said yesterday that the UK welcomed the competition. “China is ambitious almost in a way no country has ever been in the way we are seeing the regeneration of probably no less than a third of Beijing,” she said during a visit to the ¬£246m national stadium, which is 80% complete with two years remaining until the Olympics. [Full Text]
