The Chinese National Games: Olympic deja vu
Friday, 30th October 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Even the smog looks familiar. Jinan Olympic Stadium, October 2009
White elephants
A perfectly fine stadium sat mostly unused in a downtown location, while much of the competition took place in an Olympic Green-style setting on the outskirts. There a brand new tennis stadium, gymnasium, natatorium and the Games' showpiece—the 60,000-seat Jinan Olympic Stadium (pictured below)—played host to competition.
Considering that the Bird's Nest has hosted three events in the 14 months since the games (a martial arts show, an Italian soccer/football game, and a production of the Italian opera Turandot), odds are not good that Jinan's stadium will be pulling in revenue any time soon. Also facing a bleak future is the 445-room Sheraton Jinan Hotel, which opened across the street in September. It's a great location if you're in town for an unlikely sports event at Jinan Olympic Center—terrible if you have business downtown.
Empty seats
The National Games dominated the national sports television channel, CCTV5, for the duration of the competition. And if you watched track and field events on TV, you would have heard a roaring crowd in the stadium. But the stadium was actually only 10 percent full when I was there, and the crowd noise was played over the loudspeakers. Filling seats was a problem at the Olympics, too, even though everything was officially sold out.
Beijing 2008:
China vs. Angola, Beijing Olympics, August 2008 (basketball, Wukesong Arena)
Jinan 2009:
Jinan Olympic Stadium, October 2009
Ticket design: Where have I seen that before?
Beijing 2008 athletics ticket:
Shandong 2009 athletics ticket:
Awesome volunteers
Beijing set a new standard for Olympic volunteers, in terms of both numbers and attitude. Jinan's volunteers were just as patient and enthusiastic, whether helping spectators find the right entrance or raking the sand between innings at the baseball games. And I didn't do a study, but ran into a surprising number who spoke English well.
Paranoia
In Beijing, it was protests and terrorism. But in Jinan organizers focused on another threat—they weren't taking any chances that the 50 spectators inside the stadium would set off a swine flu outbreak. Health workers checked the temperature of everyone who entered the stadium.
Exploding lunch boxes
The concessions lacked that undisputed highlight of the Olympics—5 RMB cans of Tsing Tao beer. But they did have the self-heating lunch boxes that were available at some Beijing venues (watch Wall Street Journal China correspondent Sky Canaves' demo here).
Familiar Font
Signage at the 2008 Olympics, Beijing:
Signage at the 2009 Chinese National Games, Jinan:
Tags: 2008 Beijing Olympics, Jinan, National games, Olympics, Shandong, ticketing, venues
Around the Web: Dalian's new sports complex, skateboarding in China and more badminton wins
Tuesday, 7th July 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Move over (empty) Bird's Nest. British architectural firm RMJM won a competition to design a 20,000-square-meter sports complex in Dalian, capital of China's Liaoning province, and renderings of the design look distinctive to say the least. The building, which resembles a giant piece of muscle tissue, is to feature a floor that's suspended off the ground and north-facing skylights. It will house a 50-meter pool, as well as areas for martial arts, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, fencing and gymnastics. It's not RMJM's first China project--it also designed buildings for the Beijing Olympics, including the fencing and shooting venues and the international media center. One of the company's designers, John Pauline, contributed to design of the Water Cube. The Dalian project was the first for RMJM's new studio, RMJM Sport, which also was recently awarded the contract to design six venues for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
China's skateboarding scene
A couple of months after the X Games came to Shanghai, this Global Post article by Jordan Calinoff takes a quick look at the growth of skateboarding's popularity in China.
More wins for Chinese badminton team
China continued to do what it does in badminton over the weekend, winning four out of five finals at the Philippine Open. That's good news for sportswear brand Li-Ning, which earlier this year replaced another Chinese company, 361, as the team's outfitter and major sponsor.
Dalian image: RMJM
Tags: badminton, Dalian, RMJM, skateboarding, sports venues, venues, X Games
Venue maps and the last round of Olympic tickets
Thursday, 24th July 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
A list of ticket booths is below. The BBC's Olympic venue map is a great place to start if you don't know the location of an Olympic site. For a map that's less geographically detailed but includes the venues' Mandarin names, check out ChinesePod's Olympics site, where you can also pick up some last-minute Olympic-themed language lessons.
Get there early, and bring your passport and your sense of humor—the lines are bound to be long. Cash and Visa cards are the only two forms of payment that will be accepted. The box offices close at 6 p.m., but it's a safe bet that tickets will be sold out long before then.
Beijing's main ticket outlet is on the north side of Beitucheng Road, on the west side of the public transportation parking space. Subway lines 8 and 10 meet at Beitucheng. This booth will sell tickets for events hosted at the following venues:
National Stadium (Bird's Nest)
National Aquatics Center (Water Cube)
National Indoor Stadium
Fencing Hall of National Convention Center
Beijing Wukesong Sports Center Baseball Field
Box offices at football (soccer) preliminaries sites—Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao—will only sell tickets for events they are hosting.
According to BOCOG's ticketing site, the following venues will have booths selling tickets only for events that they are hosting:
Olympic Green North venue cluster
Olympic Sports Center venue cluster
Wukesong venue cluster
Laoshan Velodrome
Beijing Shooting Range CTF/Hall
Fengtai Sports Center Softball Field
Capital Indoor Stadium
Peking University Gymnasium
Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium
Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium
Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics Gymnasium
Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium
China Agricultural University Gymnasium
Triathlon Venue
Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park
Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground
Beijing Workers' Stadium
Beijing Workers' Gymnasium
Tags: Beijing, Chinesepod, Olympic ticketing, Olympics, venues