CHINA: OLYMPICS - China's National Aquatic Centre - the "Water Cube" - goes through its first test

Record ID: 329757

  • Title: CHINA: OLYMPICS - China's National Aquatic Centre - the "Water Cube" - goes through its first test
  • Date: 1st February 2008
  • Summary: SWIMMERS DIVING INTO THE WATER PEOPLE SWIMMING SWIMMERS WALKING TO THE POOL
  • Embargoed: 16th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA12IP7FTLKOGM1WVFBLS6XYEAY
  • Story Text: The National Aquatic Centre, also known as the "Water Cube", holds test events in Beijing and passes with flying colours.
    China's first fully completed Olympic Stadium, the National Aquatic Centre, held its first test event on Thursday (January 31).
    The "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Swimming China Open held six races on the first day of the six-day event. Among those competing was China's Asian record holder Zhou Jiawei in the men's 100-metre butterfly.
    The National Aquatic Centre, also known as the "Water Cube", is Beijing's Olympic swimming venue. The Australian-designed structure holds the key to these athletes ambitions, with 42 Olympic gold medals to be competed for next August.
    The $143-million venue for swimming, diving and synchronised swimming allowed the Chinese capital's residents to ponder the ethereal cuboid structure at close range for the first time.
    Wang Xiaobing came to see not only the swimming but also the venue.
    "This is the very first time that the Water Cube is open to the public. If I buy tickets to get in here during the Olympic Games, it will be a lot more expensive than this. So I think this is very worthwhile," Wang said.
    Construction of the 17,000-seat Olympic swimming pool began in December 2003. It currently contains three pools, the diving pool, a 50-metre competition pool and a separate training pool.
    Conversion plans allow for further pools to be added after the August Olympics to maximize the use of the venue.
    Elizabeth Rolland came with her friends from Canada to see the "Water Cube".
    "I think colour has got a lot to do with it. Of course the water is going to be a bluish tone and I like the blues elsewhere and particularly get a good feeling when you see it from the outside. And that stays inside you when you enter the building," Rolland said.
    But behind the facade lies a tale of designers grappling with cultural symbols and geometrical calculations.
    With computers not advanced enough to create the random bubbles, designers in China worked furiously to craft them manually, while their counterparts in Melbourne worked on the structure.
    Factbox: Here are five facts about the venue: * Construction began on Dec. 24, 2003. It was handed over to Beijing organisers on Jan. 28, 2008.
    * It occupies 80,000 square metres and contains one competition pool, one diving pool and one training pool. It has 17,000 seats (6,000 permanent, 11,000 temporary).
    * It cost 1.03 billion yuan ($143.2 million), some 80 percent of which was donated by overseas-based Chinese.
    * The cushions in the outer layer of the building are comprised of more than 100,000 square metres of ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene), a plastic with a melting point of 275 degrees Celsius. Some 6,700 tonnes of steel and 1,300 tonnes of welding rods were also used in the construction.
    * A total of 42 gold medals will be won at the Water Cube in swimming, diving and synchronised swimming at the Olympics. After the Games and Paralympics, a quarter of the venue will be retained for competition with the rest used for leisure purposes.
    Sources: Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG)
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