"China's man-made marvels" (#64; Topic I)

On Sunday, 1/29/06, to celebrate the lunar New Year, the Discovery channel beamed a two-hour special on "China's man-made marvels." The first, nicknamed The Bird nest, is the National Sports Stadium, built for the 2008 Olympic Games. Its marvel -- its innovative feature -- is that, while it can accommodate 90,000+ spectators, the entire stadium is beamless, as a bird nest is -- "one can see everything on the field regardless where one sits." The second, nicknamed The Egg, is the National Theater. Its marvel or innovative feature is that the entire structure is doorless -- no openings of any kind, as an egg is. One gains admittance to the theater via an underground entrance -- much like the underground entrance to the Louvre in Paris or the underground entrance to the capitol being built in Washington DC. The third, the Television Cultural Center (TVCC) to house the CCTV, is a multi-building office complex. Its marvel or innovative feature is that inter-building multi-story corridors, high above the sky bearing heavy load, are beamless. Another marvel, not mentioned by the announcer, seems to be the design -- the structural design of these three buildings is done mainly by Chinese professionals (the Bird nest has inputs from EU architects, drawing from their experience from the collapse of the Charles deGaulle airport in Paris). All these buildings are in Beijing, ready to greet visitors to the 2008 Olympic Games. I hope I can make the trip to see them in person.
Posted at 9:18 pm, Thursday, February 2, 2006