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It will be the scene of some of the most exciting and thrilling competitions of the 2008 Olympic Games, but the importance of the Wukesong Indoor Stadium goes far beyond its significance as a venue for Olympic basketball.

The stadium, a part of the 520,000-square-metre Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre, is also a centrepiece for the redevelopment of the Wukesong Community.

As Zhou Liangluo, magisrate of Haidian District put it: “Wukesong was not a very dynamic area in the past. We’ve been waiting 50 years for an exciting project like this. Now, the centre is quickening the pace of our community’s development.”

With a seated audience capacity of 18,000, the 52,000-square-metre stadium, located east of the West Fourth Ring Road, is the largest Olympic venue in western Beijing.

The Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre includes the Wukesong Baseball Field and several other sports and commercial facilities. After the 2008 Games, the centre is expected to serve as a key commercial, sport and leisure centre for Wukesong’s residents.

Changes are already taking place that are enlivening this storied community.

Green, High-tech and People’s Centre

The Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre is owned and managed by the Beijing Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre Limited Corporation, which was the first proprietor to sign a contract with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

“We bore Olympic concepts in mind and employed them throughout construction of the centre,” said Zhang Bing, the deputy manager of the corporation’s Construction Management Department. “We did our best to build a green, high-tech and people-oriented culture and sports centre.”

Though the grounds at the Wukesong Indoor Stadium site are still bumpy, rough, and littered with detritus, Zhang is confident that by this time in 2007 the grounds will have become some of the best surrounding a basketball gymnasium in the world. In the meantime, reams of black tarp are being used to cover the dusty ground to keep the dust from blowing in the wind. Zhang said the special tarps are made of biodegradable materials so as to do no harm to the environment, and air quality monitoring equipment has been installed at the site to ensure this.

“We have to use 600,000–700,000 square metres of tarp per year. Though this increases our construction costs, we’ve made impressive improvements in environmental quality.”

Environmentally friendly materials such as epoxy colophony were used in making the stadium’s floors. The stadium’s exterior will feature light, delicate and translucent laminated glass that will also serve to reduce ultraviolet radiation. Because of these high-tech glass walls, the stadium will not need to be lighted under normal weather conditions in the daytime.

“Spectator convenience is our first priority,” Zhang said. Under each of the stadium’s seats, there is an air intake. These comfortable seats were designed according to human-body engineering and they are dustproof and static-free. Seats for disabled people are located in every part of the viewing area. The disabled will be able to get to their seats directly via barrier-free passages from the outside of the stadium, even without others’ help.  

Construction on the stadium’s roof was nearly finished as of September 2006.

The construction of the baseball field, which can hold 25,000 fans, is also going smoothly. The underground steel structures of Fields One and Two are already in place.

Dai Xinzhi, deputy general manager of the Beijing Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre Limited Corporation, said, “The whole centre will be completed by the end of 2007. Then, several test games will be held.”

Speeding Up a Community’s Heartbeat

After the Olympic Games the Wukesong Centre will be preserved as an important part of the heritage of 2008 Beijing. Citizens in western sections and Beijing as a whole will have access to cultural, sports, leisure, recreational and commercial activities there. It will be a large-scale, multi-function project, rare in Beijing for its integration of cultural and sports functions, its commercial appeal and its large-scale gardens and greens. 

“Ever since the project broke ground in March 2005, Games and post-Games usage has been a major concern,” Dai said.

The Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre was designed for 100 years of service as the largest leisure centre in western Beijing. In addition to an indoor stadium and baseball field, the centre includes a four-star hotel and several office buildings; it will enhance and stimulate its neighbouring areas’ commercial, cultural and sports-industry development. In the near future, the site will become a capacious park, available to all Beijing residents, with a nearly 100,000-square-metre public green belt to be built within the centre.

Zhou said a sub-road leading to the stadium’s north and a 35-metre-wide sub-trunk road on the stadium’s east side are under construction. “According to BOCOG’s estimate of the area’s human traffic, more pedestrian overpasses and bus lines will be installed here,” which Zhou said was an exciting prospect for Wukesong.

Under the coordination of People’s Government of Haidian District, the construction of the Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre and the development of the old community are being successfully combined. The centre’s green cover is not limited to the Olympic site; it is being combined with a greenbelt project outside the site. After the two projects are completed, which are being planned simultaneously, a harmonious green channel will emerge as a connecting knot between the centre and the community.

“The real estate market might be the best proof of the vigour the centre has brought to the community,” said Dai, “Currently four residential communities are under construction near the centre. The price of each square metre has already risen by 4,000 yuan since the construction of the centre began.”

On the site of the Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre, concrete and steel structures have already outlined the complete figure. It is not hard to imagine the exciting scenes that will be seen when the 2008 Olympics Games comes, with prosperity for local merchants in its wake.