The Bird's Nest was designed by a team including Herzog and de Meuron and the artist Ai Weiwei, and its structure is genuinely unusual: the interwoven steel bands are the building's facade, not decoration, and they brace the bowl inside. The stadium holds around ninety-one thousand people and hosted the 2008 and 2022 opening ceremonies.
The Water Cube
Next door, the National Aquatics Center is a blue cuboid whose walls are made of thousands of translucent bubbles in a structure inspired by soap foam. Built for the swimming events of 2008, it was converted after the Games into a water park and leisure complex, and the interior lighting at night turns the whole building into a glowing block.
The Olympic Park
The two venues stand at either side of the central axis of the park, with the Linglong Pagoda and the stadium concourse between them. The park is broad, paved and easy to walk, and it connects north to the Olympic Forest Park. In the evening the buildings are floodlit and the plaza fills with people; this is the best time to come.
Practical notes
The park is about 30 minutes north of the city center by metro, with a station directly beneath the plaza. Stadium and aquatics center tours are available on non-event days and include access to the field and the seating bowl. If a concert or match is scheduled, the park is very crowded and the tours are suspended, so check the schedule before you go.
