A Sakura Story: China - Empty Birds Nest

China - Empty Birds Nest

No one can deny that The 2008 Olympic in Beijing set the bar pretty high for future Olympic stadiums and celebrations. The spectacular “Bird’s Nest” which cost $423 million to build (3 times more than any other Olympics) really is truly amazing!

But what happens now?

Since the Olympics ended, the stadium has hosted an opera, one Italian soccer match and a Jackie Chan concert...thats it! The 91,000-seat stadium, was even too large for the national soccer team - who evidently aren't very good and might be embarrassed by how many empty seats there would be. There is talk now of transforming the Bird's Nest into a shopping center in a few years. Is it just me or does that seem like a colossal waste of resources.

As Kingsley was working, I went to visit the Olympic stadium by myself and found it to be mostly deserted. There were some Chinese tourists and one or two other Westerners. Being blue-eyed and blonde I found most of the local visitors, being from far-flung corners of China, starring at me as though they had never seen such a strange creature. (They had likely never seen the Bird's Nest, either, but then again, the building isn't very interactive.) People approached me from all sides politely asking to take photos with me while the shyer ones took pictures from afar. I might be going out on a limb here but I'm guessing that some random blonde tourist attracting more attention at the Olympic Stadium then the stadium itself probably does not bode well for the long term outlook of the empty Birds Nest.