New Rules Aim to Contain Official Extravagance
According to the PEW Research Center, official corruption is considered a “very big...
Bird’s nest
Censorship Vault: Beijing Internet Instructions Series (33)
In partnership with the China Copyright and Media blog, CDT is adding the “Beijing Internet...
How China Saw the Olympic Opening Ceremony
Since the opening of the Beijing Olympics four years ago—a declaration of national arrival which awed some and terrified others—the question has lingered of how London would follow it. Comparisons were inevitable, and perhaps...
Beijing’s Olympic Ruins
Four years later, most of the sports facilities built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics have remained untouched since the extravagant closing ceremony. The Water Cube, the main stadium for aquatics during the Olympics, is now...
Word of the Week: Love the Future
Editor’s Note: The Word of the Week comes from China Digital Space’s Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a...
The Uncertain Return of Beijing Wildlife
The sky above Beijing is best known for characteristics other than its bird life. Nevertheless, the city’s birds appear to have multiplied over the past ten years thanks to new habitats offered by reforestation to combat...
Fake Great Wall Prompts Introspection, While Real One Falls Apart
As reported on Monday, the Jiangsu village of Huaxi recently unveiled a 328-metre skyscraper, crowned with a golden disco ball and housing a one-ton solid gold ox. The Guardian has now published a video report on the village and...
China’s $450M White Elephant?
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...
Michael Meyer: One World, One Dream One Year Later
“By many measures the 2008 Olympics were a smashing success, but for the people of Beijing, the Games have left a mixed legacy” From CNN.com: Beijing’s Olympic legacy doesn’t compare with that of Seoul,...
The Bird’s Nest Looks For A Post-Olympic Purpose
The iconic Olympic stadium, the Bird’s Nest, has yet to secure a post-Olympic use. Stephen Wade, from the Associated Press reports: The iconic National Stadium drew acclaim for its daring design, an engineering marvel that...
An Olympic Stadium Worth Remembering
The New York Times continues its paper-wide China coverage with a review of the so-called Bird’s Nest stadium by architecture critic Nicholai Ouroussoff: Designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de...
Torch Has Made Beijing Blind: Artist
On a visit to Australia, artist and co-designer of the Bird’s Nest Oympics stadium Ai Weiwei speaks out against the government. From the Australian: “I don’t see myself as a dissident artist, I see them as a...
Video: Beijing Olympics: How Modern? How Different?
With Beijing having now officially entered its Olympics year (by the lunar calendar) we resurrect a five-part Discovery Channel broadcast from last year on the remaking of city for the Olympics, a process that is...
China Feels The Heat of Its Olympic Ambitions
From Los Angeles Times : In the shadow of the $440-million “bird’s nest” Olympic stadium , migrant workers toil for a few dollars a day. A few miles away, bulldozers destroy a neighborhood where petitioners...
China ‘Covered Up’ 10 Stadium Deaths – AP
From AP via News.com.au: Chines authorities have covered up the deaths of at least 10 workers in their rush to finish the Olympic stadium for the games that get underway on August 8, it was reported overnight. According to the Sunday Times newspaper Chinese officials have effectively bought off the families of the dead workers […]
Photo: Beijing’s “2008 Olympic Stadium”
From Guanjun’s blog:
The 10 Best (New and Upcoming) Architectural Marvels – Time magazine
Quite an “achievement” for Beijing, home to three of Time magazine’s 10 architectural mavels for 2007. From time.com: #6 | Olympic Stadium, Beijing Athletes at the Summer Games will compete in a nestlike venue by Herzog & de Meuron. #7 | CCTV Headquarters, Beijing A tetrahedronal structure by Rem Koolhaas will be the most radically […]
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