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Showing posts with label 2008 Beijing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008 Beijing. Show all posts
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Beijing Exhibition Centre Hotel
Days inn Joiest Beijing
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The Regent Beijing
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Days Hotel & Suites Beijing
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Holiday Inn Central Plaza Beijing
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Jianguo Hotel
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Beijing Yayuncun Hotel
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Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The bird nest tries to set off the smoke and fire
Last night, the night fell, “bird nest” in brilliantly illuminated, the drum Chinese zither sounded together. 20:02, “sound of something being struck or falling to the ground” after a bang, ten thousand fireworks revolve “the bird nest” to start to put abundantly, compose four groups of gorgeous designs.
8:00 am, “the bird nest” the peripheral smoke and fire sets off the spot to place finishes, the operation sets off the line controls the facility also to prepare, all are ready in full battle array, are waiting for the start which that evening tries to put. About 4:20 pm, the ceremony rehearses the actor to take along each kind of stage prop to enter the arena one after another. Meanwhile, the security personnel set off a nearby 5 meter in the smoke and fire place to pull up together the warning line, and has prepared fire fighting equipments and so on fire extinguisher, fire protection blanket. According to the facility area hands over the tube department public figures to introduce, when the smoke and fire sets off, paths and so on lake Jing Dongjie will implement seal up.
on 16th evening, “the bird nest” the night scene lighting system all turns on a light for the first time “the dress rehearsal”. The light performance is divided 5 parts, respectively is: The breath, the palpitation, revolving, run, raise. The entire process is 15 minutes. The whole body turns on a light for the first time the bird nest and the airborne fireworks enhance one another's beauty.
Beijing entertainment letter newspaper quoted the national stadium lighting system to assign the supplier, the good industry illumination expert's introduction saying that “bird nest” night scene illumination by “red wall surface and stand back lighting”, “outer layer steel structure illumination”, “roof membrane structure illumination” the main body illumination, as well as “the big staircase illumination”, “the small `bird nest ' the botanical garden illumination” and so on five parts composed, the main body illumination take the traditional culture element “Chinese red” as the essential color, the inside red core tube and the stand back board has unfolded the movement fervor and the Chinese red characteristic. At the same time, goes out through the red ocher wall and steel structure building sets up the surface sketch effect, is with China traditional culture elements and so on sketch, paper-cut window decoration produces the bright visual results.
It is reported that “the bird nest” the night scene lighting system may demonstrate the different dynamic effect the scene, the golden color, the silver, red, the red dynamic performance and so on. In significant holiday or grand active period, the red ocher wall reflects the red partial effects will have the light and shade change, the development “the breath”, “the palpitation”, “revolving”, “the ascension”, even succinct “moves” and so on scenes, exaggerates the scene the warm atmosphere.
In 20:02 to 21:00 28 duty-bound, the smoke and fire tries to put divides four stages to carry on turn, the radiant fireworks in airborne composes designs and so on Olympic Games five links, performs with the field in echoes.
beijing olympics Ticketing Policies and Procedures
The following topics cover the issues that are frequently asked pertaining to the Olympic tickets and the ticketing process. If your question is not listed here, please visit the official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, or contact us.
What is "Best Available"?
If "Best Available" is selected when requesting tickets, our system will find tickets with the highest price category available in the ticket inventory. Actual price of the tickets found for you may vary.Can I cancel my order after it is submitted?
Once your order is submitted, it cannot be edited or cancelled. Please review your order carefully before submitting it.What is the maximum number of tickets I may purchase?
BOCOG has placed a limit on the maximum number of tickets a customer can request for all sessions. The ticket ordering limit can be found on the website when you request tickets for any session.How are price levels determined?
Price levels and their corresponding seating areas are determined by miscellaneous factors such as the architectural design and geographic location of an event-hosting venue as well as the characteristics of the event itself. Different price levels are distinguished by the letter labels A, B, C, etc. The seating areas represented by each price level may vary from venue to venue and from session to session. Please take it into consideration when filling out your application form.How do I locate my seats?
You may request tickets by price levels when you place your ticket order. System will find your seating position within the venue in a broader range. Your tickets will display the exact seating numbers once they are printed. Prior to that, BOCOG will not make a special notification to ticket purchasers on their seating locations, nor will the Customer Service department of BOCOG have this information available.Do I need to notify BOCOG of any changes on my mailing address or my contact numbers, etc.?
Yes. To ensure that all notices will correctly reach you in a timely manner, please notify BOCOG of any such changes either by editing your online ticketing account profile or by contacting the Olympic Ticketing Call Center.Can I submit an accommodation booking along with my ticket application?
Sorry, BOCOG does not provide ticket-plus-accommodation travel packages. You will have to arrange for your own transport and accommodation prior to attending any Olympic sessions.I live overseas. Can I book my Olympic tickets through this website?
Sorry, you are not eligible to book Olympic tickets through this website. Please contact your regional Olympic committee for inquiries on further ticketing information.I'm a wheelchair user. Are Olympic venues built to be wheelchair-friendly?
Yes. All the Olympic venues are wheelchair accessible. If you need seats for wheelchair, please make sure to add "Wheelchair seats" instead of "Regular Seats" to your order.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Water Cube
National Swimming Center--Exquisite and Exciting "Water Cube"
In Chinese culture, water is an important natural element. It creates a calming atmosphere and inspires happiness. Taking full consideration of the functions of water in recreation and bodybuilding, designers have explored many ways for people of different age groups to appreciate its function. The design is called "Water Cube". Many creative designs have been employed in the creation of the swimming pools at the swimming center. Other high-tech facilities including optical devices used to define positions of athletes, and multiple-angle, three-dimensional screening systems are provided to help spectators enjoy competitions.
A semi-transparent "cube", with "bubbles" spread out all over its surface, is a shape very similar to the structure of "H2O", the outlook for the National Swimming Center at the 2008 Olympic Games. After the games, it will become a recreational water park open to the public.
The National Swimming Center, one of the three landmark buildings for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is located inside the Beijing Olympic Park. Covering a total floor space of 50,000 square meters, it has 17,000 seats. The project costs about US$100 million. The center will be a venue for swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water-polo games during the period of the Olympic Games. After the games, the center will become a large water recreational center open to the public.
The National Swimming Center, one of the three landmark buildings for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is located inside the Beijing Olympic Park. Covering a total floor space of 50,000 square meters, it has 17,000 seats. The project costs about US$100 million. The center will be a venue for swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water-polo games during the period of the Olympic Games. After the games, the center will become a large water recreational center open to the public.
In January 2003, Beijing started to solicit design schemes for the National Swimming Center. The international competition settled on "Water Cube" as the winning scheme. It is designed by the design consortium consisting of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, China State Construction International (Shenzhen) Design Co Ltd, PTW Architects (Australia) and Ove Arup (Australia).
The National Swimming Center will be the only landmark Olympic venue that is constructed by donations from compatriots from Overseas.
Bird's Nest
Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest/Olympic Stadium)
The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the bird's nest will be the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and will be host to the Opening and Closing ceremonies. In 2002 Government officials engaged architects worldwide in a design competition. Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron collaborated with ArupSport and China Architecture Design & Research Group to win the competition. The stadium will seat as many as 100,000 spectators during the Olympics, but this will be reduced to 80,000 after the games. It has replaced the original intended venue of the Guangdong Olympic Stadium. The stadium is 330 metres long by 220 metres wide, and is 69.2 metres tall. The 250,000 square metre (gross floor area) stadium is to be built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes. The stadium will cost up to 3.5 billion yuan (422,873,850 USD/ 325,395,593 EUR). The ground was broken in December 2003, and construction started in March 2004, but was halted by the high construction cost in August 2004.
In the new design, the roof of the stadium had been omitted from the design. Experts say that this will make the stadium safer, whilst reducing construction costs. The construction of the Olympic buildings will continue once again in the beginning of 2005.
In depth The stadium's appearance is one of synergy, with no distinction made between the facade and the superstructure. The structural elements mutually support each other and converge into a grid-like formation - almost like a bird's nest with its interwoven twigs. The spatial effect of the stadium is novel and radical, yet simple and of an almost archaic immediacy, thus creating a unique historical landmark for the Olympics of 2008.
The stadium was conceived as a large collective vessel, which makes a distinctive and unmistakable impression both from a distance and when seen from up close. It meets all the functional and technical requirements of an Olympic National Stadium, but without communicating the insistent sameness of technocratic architecture dominated by large spans and digital screens.
Visitors walk through this formation and enter the spacious ambulatory that runs full circle around the stands. From there, one can survey the circulation of the entire area including the stairs that access the three tiers of the stands. Functioning like an arcade or a concourse, the lobby is a covered urban space with restaurants and stores that invite visitors to stroll around. Just as birds stuff the spaces between the woven twigs of their nests with a soft filler, the spaces in the structure of the stadium will be filled with inflated ETFE cushions. Originally, on the roof, the cushions were to be mounted on the outside of the structure to make the roof completely weatherproof, but the roof has been omitted from the design in 2004.
While the rain was to be collected for rainwater recuperation, the sunlight was to filter through the translucent roof, providing the lawn with essential ultraviolet radiation. On the facade, the inflated cushions will be mounted on the inside of the structure where necessary, e.g. to provide wind protection. Since all of the facilities -- restaurants, suites, shops and restrooms -- are all self-contained units, it is possible to do largely without a solid, enclosed facade. This allows for natural ventilation of the stadium, which is the most important aspect of the stadium's sustainable design.
The sliding roof was an integral part of the stadium structure. When it was to be closed, it would have converted the stadium into a covered arena; however, the sliding roof was eliminated in an effort to cut costs and increase overall safety of the radical new structure.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Tiantan Park
The Temple of Heaven, (Tiantan), is located in the Chongwen district in the south part of Beijing, about 6km away from the center of the city. It was built in 1420 during a time when many other important structures were constructed in Beijing. Tiantan served as a place of ceremony and ritual for the Ming and Qing emperors.
The Palace of Abstinence is located near the western entrance of the temple. Before each ceremony, emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties held a three-day fast during summer and winter solstice. The emperors spent two days fasting in the Forbidden City and completed the three-day fast in the Palace of Abstinence. The beamless hall was one of the most famous buildings in Beijing.
South of the Echo wall stands the Altar of Heaven, built entirely of white marble. The altar has four entrances and a flight of nine steps leading down in every direction. At the center of the upper terrace lies a round stone surrounded by nine concentric rings of stones.
Even the numbers of the carved balustrades on these terraces are also multiples of nine. When you stand in the center of the upper terrace and speak in a low voice, your voice will echo back much louder to yourself than to others, as the sound waves are reflected back by the marble balustrades to the focal point at the center.
The main building in the compound is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The entire structure was joint by wooden bars, laths and brackets, without using steel and concrete. The four large pillars in the center are known as the Dragon Well Pillars with each pillar representing one of the four seasons.
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace, located ten kilometers to the northwest of Beijing, used to be a summer residence of Qing Dynasty emperors and is now a public park. It is an imperial garden known far and wide for its architectural grandeur and stunning natural beauty. Construction of the Summer Palace started in 1750.
The northern part of the Summer Palace is the 60-meter-tall Longevity Hill. Its southern part is a wide expanse of water called Kunming Lake. The whole garden covers 290 hectares, with the lake taking up four-fifths of its total area.
A cluster of grand buildings adorn the middle section of the Longevity Hill. On the slope from the lakeside to the hilltop stand: a decorated archway called Jade-Like Firmament in Bright Colors, Cloud-Dispelling Hall, Hall of Virtuous Brilliance, Pavilion of Buddhist Incense and Temple of the Sea of Wisdom. Standing on the top of the hill, a visitor commands a spectacular view of buildings of different shapes and sizes down below, their golden roofs glittering under the sun; the placid, huge Kunming Lake dotted with rowing boats; a 17-arch bridge that connects an island with the lake's southern bank; the long, winding west bank of the lake joined by six bridges; and the distant West Hills.
Along the northern bank of Kunming Lake runs the Long Corridor with a total length of 728 meters and 273 sections. It is like a necklace for Longevity Hill. Strolling in the corridor, a visitor sees an endless lineup of corridor stands stretching into the distance or curving away elegantly at soft angles as well as Kunming Lake sparkling under the sun. The crossbeams of the Long Corridor are decorated with more than 8,000 color paintings with Chinese landscape and historical stories as their themes.
The 17-arch bridge on the southern bank of Kunming Lake is more than 150 meters long. Carved stone lions, of different sizes and postures, sit on top of the bridge's stone columns. An octagonal pavilion stands at one end of the bridge and near the pavilion lies a bronze ox with its head raised toward the lake. On the back of the ox is engraved a line from Emperor Qianlong stating that the ox is used to control flooding of the lake.
A Ming-style street winds along a stretch of water on the back side of Longevity Hill. The Suzhou Street, 300 meters long, is lined with more than 60 shops and decorated with archways and gateways. The shops, of different shapes and sizes, are built with bluish gray tiles and bricks. The marketplace lends a folksy flavor to the imperial garden.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Beijing, Jing for short, is the nation's political, economic, cultural and educational center as well as China's most important center for international trade and communications. Together with Xian, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Nanjing and Hangzhou, Beijing is one of the six ancient cities in China. It has been the heart and soul of politics and society throughout its long history and consequently there is an unparalleled wealth of discovery to delight and intrigue travelers as they explore Beijing's ancient past and enjoy its exciting modern development.
As the capital of the People's Republic of China, Beijing is located in northern China, close to Tianjin Municipality and partially surrounded by Hebei Province. The city covers an area of more than 16,410 square kilometers (6336 square miles) and has a population of 14.93 million people.
Beijing is a city with four distinct seasons. Its best is late spring and autumn. But autumn is taken as the golden tourist season of the year since there is sometimes in the spring of recent years, a yellow wind. We suggest tourists visit Beijing during the months of May, September, and October when people can enjoy bright sunshine and blue skies. An abundance of international class performances are presented in May. If you like winter, you will have other chances to appreciate another landscape of Beijing. After skiing in Beihai and viewing the snowy sights on West Hill, enjoying the steaming hotpot is the best choice, which is really the fun of tour in Beijing. Please keep warm and remember to bring your down garments and sweaters when you visit Beijing in the winter.
How can one city boast so many phenomenal places? Beijing's long and illustrious history started some 500,000 years ago. It is here that the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens, Peking men, lived in caves. Records show that Beijing has been an inhabited city for more than three thousand years and has endured invasions by warlords and foreign powers, devastating fires, the rise and fall of powerful imperial dynasties and has emerged each time as a strong and vibrant city. For more than 800 years, Beijing was a capital city - from the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368) to the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties. Thirty-four emperors have lived and ruled the nation in Beijing and it has been an important trading city from its earliest days.
Although now Beijing is a modern and fashionable city complete with a full 21st Century vitality, you can experience authentic Beijing life and become acquainted with 'old Beijing' by exploring its many teahouses, temple fairs, Beijing's Hutong and Courtyard and enjoy the Peking Opera. Add any or all of these to your Beijing tour and you will leave with a feeling of special appreciation in your heart for this ancient city that has truly seen it all and tells its story with matchless grace, charm and vigor.
With the biggest central square in the world - Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City that is the largest and best-preserved imperial palace complex, a superbly preserved section of the Great Wall,as well as the largest sacrificial complex in the world - the Temple of Heaven, Beijing attracts both domestic and foreign visitors who all come to wonder at its century-old history and unique cultural relics.
Dwelling too much on the historical past of Beijing may give tourists the false impression that it is little more than an ancient city in style but this is definitely not so! Strolling around Beijing, you'll find it has much in common with any other great metropolis elsewhere in today's world. There are towering skyscrapers; busy shopping malls and an endless stream of traffic that makes the city much the same as others. The most famous and popular commercial circles and commercial pedestrian streets are predominantly located near the Yansha Shopping Mall, Tiananmen and Wangfujing Street, Guomao Shopping Mall, Qianmen Street and Xidan Street, etc. However, although you will find multinational chains with their own brands to offer, nowhere else on earth will you find such a variety of gourmet Chinese restaurants offering the very best of the eight different styles of Chinese cuisine as well as western style dishes. Modern hotels abound, each offering the highest standards of service and convenience.
After a day's Beijing tours, nighttime can hold other surprises for you. These can vary from traditional performances such as the Beijing Opera, acrobatics and martial arts to modern ones including concerts, ballroom dancing, pubs and clubs. Each and every one has its individual enchantment for the tourist. No description of our capital city is complete without mention of the friendly people who throng the streets. Everywhere you will encounter smiling faces and a warm welcome, especially from the children who love to say 'Hello!' All these things add up to truly make your visit a cultural experience of a lifetime.
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