Hello every, myname is Licanhui. And the topic today is entertainment. As we all know,different people may have different ways to have entertainment. Some of themare listed here.
First, films, suchas the 3-D film Avanter. And this way to have entertainment is used byfilmlovers. Nest , if you like singing, KTV is a good choice, and this ispopular among students., shopping, which girls like most, if you are not lackof money, buy yourself some beautiful clothes and shoes is good choice. Next ,sports, such as basketball, footfall and so on, and this is a healthy way tohave fun. Next sleeping, and I think this is the most cheapest and easiest wayto relax yourself. Nest computer games, such as Popkart, I like this computergame very much. And The Defense of The Ancient. Or you can call it dota forshort. And this computer game is very very popular among boys. The last,travelling, is alse many people’s first choice. There a many famous sceneryspot in Shanxi, such as the big wild goose pagoda, and Terra-Cotta Warriers.
Today, I wantintroduce another famous scenery spot in Beijing, that is the national mainstadium, the bird’s nest. The bird’s nest is well known to the public for the29th summer Olympics in 2008, but what I want to share with everyonehere today is not the stadium itself, but the story about the stadium, thestory about how it is designed, constructed and finished. OK, let’s begin.
Its steel roof is1050 feet long, and 974 feet wide, and can contain 91,000 spectators.
The bird’s nest must have all thefunctionality of an Olympic stadium, Gaint screens, shops, and great views ofthe field
But it also facessome unique challenges. The design must be strong enough to stand dangerousearthquakes, And must be environment friendly, In a city with massive airpollutioin, The official wanted to makethis Olympics be the green Olympics, so new technology must be used in thestadium. And such a building must be finished before the immovale deadline ,the 2008 summer Olympics.it is a huge challenge.
The challengebegan in July, 2001. Beijin is in the final running to be the next Olypicshost. In the end , Samaranch announces the 29th Olympics in 2008will be held in Beijing. These pictures shows peoples’s excement andcelebration in Tiananmen Square. It’s a big honor for any natioin, But haveeven greater significant for more and more powerful China, The most importantthing is that we know we are accepted by the world. But as the citizens celebrate,Cityplanner begin to worry ,There are few venues for Olympics, Chine must designand build a new sports stadium, And fast.
In 2002, officialsannounces global competition of designing the main stadium. Thousands of architects and desiners from differentcountries took part in the competition.
Among them areHerzog and De Meuron, They have won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and thisprize is known as the Nobel Prize in architecture engineering. And they arefamous for designing the Tate Modern Museum and the Allianz Arena. They aredrawn to the challege of woking in Beijing. Although they have designed manyfamous buildings, but this job is the most challenging , they have no idea howthe Chinese will react. They must first know the Chinese way of doing things. Theycome up with the concept inspired by old Chinese art. And finally finish the design.In April,2003, experts voted for the the competition, and this design is Is chosen to bethe Olympic’s main stadium . The chinese say it looks like a bird’s nest, andthe nickname sticks to today. The ambitious design comes with a , over400,000,000$.
On December 24th, 2003, constructionon the staidum kick off with the ground breaking ceremony. And the count downbegins.
But right from thestart, engineers need to confront the major challenges
China is surroundedby the many earthquake zones, so the stadium must be earthquake proof. In 1976,a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the cityof TangShan, not far from Beijing.It destroied the city, killing 254,000people.It was the deadest earthquake of 20th century,Althoughearthquake of such magnitude are rare,But concernd with the life of athletes,spectators and citizens, the designer can’t take chances.
They decided tobuide the steel frame as separete structure. Without touching the concrete bowlwithin. They alse separete the bowl into six isolated sections. Each can moveindependently. By doing this, they can allow the building to absorb the energyof an earthquake, without shaking itself into piece.
What’s fallowingis the inner design. J Parrish have been designing stadium for 30 years frominside out. Using the advanced computer technology, J Parrish calculates theseating arrangement in the concrete bowl to make the most efficient use ofmaterial and space. And above all , to ensure the spectators will enjoy watchingthe event. Each seat will be as close to the action as possible , the longestdistance betweent seat and the center of the stadium is less than 466 feet . and such a design canmake you feel close to the athletes when you watch the Olympics, and can createexceting atmosphere.
By May 2004,construction is on thire way, but on May, 23th, 2004, at Paris Charles DeGaulle airport, the new terminal 2E Collapses, with no warning. Just one yearafter its opening. It kills four travellers, By coincidence, two of them areChinese. This accident shocks the engineering.but its influce is even harder inBeijing. The terminal roof has the similar design to the bird’s nest, they bothhave no interior sopports.
The tragedy hangsover the heads of bird’s nest team, they They worry about how this will affecttheir building. Several days later, Their worst fears were realized. Chinasuspends all work on bird’s nest, Beijing officials reexamined the safety of bird’s nest design.with the tightconstruction schedule, Any delays could be desasters. After fine long months, Theofficials finaly give the go ahead to continue the work. But reduce the numberof seats, and cancel the original retractable roof design.Concern about costs , as well as safety.
They are back ontrack, but time is not on their side. The team must finish the bowl beforewinter, or the concrete will freeze. So they Assembles thousands of works, Theconstruction accelorate. They put in 7000 people working around clock,in 3shifts a day. By 2005November 15th, the bowl is finished, and thisis the first stage of the construction.
For the Olympicstadim team, the most challenging part of the construction is about to bgein. Buildingthe steel structure, that makes it the bird’s nest.the first set of beams is onthe outside , that is 24 steel pillars, just like human’s skeleton. The secondbeam fill in the spaces of the first set. They link the beam to form thestructure. There are several thousands of components of the bird’s neststructure, of witch only two are the same, all the others are different. But firstthe team must move them From distant factories in ShangHai to the bird’s nestconstruction site. The trucks must cross six cities and five provinces. Once onsite, works welds the components to form even larger sections. And finallyfinish the steel tructure. And this is the second stage of the constuction.
The bird’s nesthas entered its final stage. But there is not time to relax. There is much todo before the building is complete, such as Like high-tech screen, halls,shops, During the last Olympic games in Athens, constrution was running behind schdule.Worker have to work day and night to finish the construction before openingday. Beijing doesn’t want to make the same mistake.
Fall 2007, Beijingnational stadium is in the final push to the finish line. The team mustcomplete the last construction, Skinning the roof.
The steelstructure Creates spaces that are irregular, With a lot of different shapes andsizes. And the worker must feed them in the old fashion way, by hand, They mustbe careful, Because they can easily fall off the surface. And they can’t beafraid of height.
This membraneprovides wind and rain protection, It alse saves energy Sunshine filter throughthe roof to light the stadium.
The constructionis on track, but a bigger problem is on people’s mind, Over 100 new cars hitthe road every day, Olympic officials are concerned about the air quality inBeijing, And wonder how it might affect athletes performances,
Beijing must doeverything it can to combat the pollution, So Beijing spend 12,000,000,000$, Tomove industrial polluters, Plant handreds of trees, and reroute the traffic
April 2007architects Herzog and De Maron return once again to bird’s nest, to check onits progresss. Their design now stand before them, in steel and contrete. Andgave them a amazing impression. He said, the bird’s nest really realizedexactly how he want it.He is very satisfied the construction.
In the end. Such agreat building is built in China. With Chinese technology, Chinese product andChinese workers.Every Chinese should be pround of it,
So if you liketravelling ,if you get the chance to go to Beijing , Do remember to go to bird’snest. Thank you.