Olympic venues

While the majority of competition will be held in Beijing, some events including football (soccer), sailing, and swimming's new marathon 10km events, will be held in other Olympic cities including Qingdao, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao and Hong Kong. Equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong.  This marks the second time (in the same edition of Olympic Games) that two National Olympic Committees have hosted the Games.

As Beijing counts down to the Games, the number of sporting venues is increasing.  In addition to utilising some existing sporting venues, Beijing is building a number of new and impressive sites.  Some venues are already receiving much notoriety because of their advanced structures, use of modern technologies and energy saving methods in their design.  In particular, the National Stadium aptly named the ‘Birds Nest’ because of its interlaced steel design, and the National Aquatic Centre, known as the ‘Water Cube’ for its energy efficient use of a lightweight transparent pillow cladding made out of Teflon, for the external layer of the Centre.

Find out more about the Beijing 2008 venues.