Olympic Green, Olympic sports complex in Chaoyang District, China.
Olympic Green is a 11.59-square-kilometre park in Chaoyang, Beijing, split into three parts: the 6.8-square-kilometre Olympic Forest Park, the 3.15-square-kilometre central zone, and the 1.64-square-kilometre built and reserved area. The central zone holds the National Stadium, the National Aquatics Center, the National Indoor Stadium, the National Convention Center, the Linglong Tower, and the Digital Beijing Building. A 3.7-kilometre grey granite landscape avenue runs along the central axis, with a 100-metre-wide tree array to the west and a 2.7-kilometre artificial dragon-shaped water channel to the east.
Construction began on 7 June 2003 with the Xindian Road works; the Bird's Nest and Water Cube broke ground on 24 December 2003, and the park was completed when the stadium opened on 28 June 2008. The site was chosen in 2001 on reserved farmland north of the 1990 Asian Games sports centre, extending Beijing's central axis. It hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, then the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The park's central axis is a 3.7 km grey granite avenue laid to imitate the imperial way of Chinese palaces, kept unbuilt along its length. West of it stands a 100 m wide grid of trees, mostly native pines, poplars and locusts with ginkgo rows at the edges. East runs a 2.7 km artificial dragon-shaped water channel fed with reclaimed water.
The park is easily accessible by subway, particularly lines 8 and 15 with stations near the main stadiums. The grounds cover a large area, so it helps to plan which sections you want to explore before your visit.
The Digital Beijing Building, the only non-sporting venue on the Green during the 2008 Games, was designed by Chinese architect Pei Zhu. Its 57-metre, 11-storey form reads as a microchip on two façades and a bar code on the other two, and it now houses a digital technology museum and exhibition space.
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