The Olympic Green, at the north end of the central axis of Beijing, houses a forest park and the Olympic Common Domain (OCD). The OCD, where the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube and the National Indoor Stadium are, is open to the public from Monday to Sunday. The Olympic Green hosted the competitions of some 15 Olympic sports in 2008.

The Olympic Green covers a total area of 1,215 hectares, of which 760 hectares is wooded areas and greenery.The remaining part of the Olympic Green consists of the Chinese Ethnic Culture Museum that occupies 50 hectares and the China International Exhibition Center (CIEC) that is 405 hectares in land area.

People believe that, it will become a center of cultural, recreational and sports activities in Beijing after the Olympic Games.

Beijing National Stadium，also known as the National Stadium or colloquially as the "Bird's Nest", is a stadium in Beijing, China. The stadium was designed by Herzong&Demeuron(Swiss) and China Architecture Design Institute，for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Beijing National Stadium hosted the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, athletic events, and football final of the 2008 Summer Olympics, from 8 August to 24 August 2008. The stadium also hosted the Opening and Closing ceremonies and athletic events of the 2008 Summer Paralympics from 6 September to 17 September 2008. Though designed for track & field events of the Olympics, the stadium will continue to host sporting events, such as football, afterwards. A shopping mall and a hotel, with rooms overlooking the field, are planned to help increase use after the Olympics.

About the stadium

• Seating capacity - 80,000 (11,000 temporary seats will be added during the 2008 Olympics)
• Total site area - 204,278m²
• Gross floor area - 258,000m²
• Structure - 36km of unwrapped steel length
• Height - 69.2m above pitch level

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.

Occupying an area of 21 hectares, it has a floor space of 258,000 square meters. The main body of the National Stadium has a design dream of 100 years, and is a colossal saddle-shaped elliptic steel structure weighing 42,000 tons. Excitely, its fire resistance capability is first-rate, and can withstand an eight-magnitude earthquake.

Located in the Olympic Green, Bird's Nest is the world's largest steel structure. The design, which originated from the study of Chinese ceramics, implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the retractable roof; giving the stadium the appearance of a "Bird's nest". The eastern and western stands of Beijing National Stadium are higher than northern and southern stands, in order to improve sightlines. A 24-hour per day rainwater collector is located near the stadium; after water is purified, it is used throughout and around the stadium. Pipes placed under the playing surface gather heat in the winter to warm the stadium and coldness in the summer to cool the stadium. The stadium's design originally called for a capacity of 100,000 people; however 9,000 were removed during a simplification of the design. The new total of 91,000 would be shaved further when 11,000 temporary seats were removed after the 2008 Olympics; bringing the stadium's capacity to 80,000. The farthest seat is 460 feet (140 metres) from center field. Temperature and airflow of every surface were optimized to increase ventilation.

Beijing National Aquatics Centre

The Beijing National Aquatics Centre , also known as the Water Cube, located at Beijing Olympics park, in Beijing is the main natatorium which in 2008 summer Olympics construct, is also in 2008 one of Beijing Olympic Games symbolic buildings. Water Cube for swimming, diving, synchronized swimming competition, which could accommodate 17,000 spectators seats, including permanent seats for 6,000 spectators, additional temporary seats during the Olympic Games, 11,000 (after will be dismantled). After will be built into the international advanced level of the set, swimming, sports, fitness, recreation in the center of one.

National Swimming Center design is based on the global design competition, "Water Cube" ([H2O] 3) programme. The programme by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Australia PTW Architects, ARUP Australia Limited joint design. Comprising a steel space frame, it is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only 1/125 (or eight one-thousandths) of an inch in total thickness. The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs.

"Water Cube" from the construction of more than 3,000 pillow gas, gas pillow sizes, shapes vary, covering 100,000 square meters, called world's greatest. Apart from the ground, the appearance of the membrane structure used. Pillow successful installation of the gas will be pre-installed on the steel frame in the pipeline inflatable become inflated "bubble," the entire process from computer inflatable intelligent monitoring, and the light of the prevailing atmospheric pressure, light conditions, such as the "bubble" to maintain the best state.

The outer wall is based on the Weaire-Phelan structure, a foam (structure formed by soap bubbles). The pattern is formed by taking a slice through the foam, and it was chosen in preference to the Kelvin foam because the more complex Weaire-Phelan structure results in more irregular, organic patterns than slices through the regular Kelvin foam.

The structure will have a capacity of 17,000, during the games that will be reduced to 6,000 afterwards. It also has a total land surface of 65,000 square metres and will cover a total of 7.8 acres (32,000 m²).

Many people believe Water Cube to be the "fastest" Olympic pool in the world. It has a depth of 3 meters, a meter deeper than most Olympic pools. Deeper pools reduce the water disturbance, leading to faster swimmers. Coupled with the newly introduced faster Speedo LZR Racer swim suit, many records fell in the Beijing Olympics.

It is 1 meter deeper than most Olympic pools. Up to a certain limit, beyond which swimmers will lose their sense of vision, deeper pools allow the waves to dissipate down to the bottom, leading to less water disturbance to the swimmers. The pool also has perforated gutters on both sides to absorb the waves.

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