后奧運(yùn)時(shí)代的鳥巢體育館 (有聲)

來源：查字典奧運(yùn)會(huì)網(wǎng)  發(fā)布時(shí)間： 2016-07-05

  Chinas Post-Olympic Woe: How To Fill An Empty Nest

  Fireworks light the night sky above the National Stadium, known as the Birds Nest, during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The stadium is largely empty these days.

  Part I

  Part II

  （文本為音頻大致內(nèi)容，可能與音頻并非完全一致，歡迎大家貢獻(xiàn)聽寫稿^^）

  LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:Its MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Im Linda Wertheimer.

  RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:And Im Renee Montagne.

  The London Olympics open later this month, at last, and with the games come new architecture - a stadium, an aquatic center and other structures. Four years ago, Beijing was showing off its new Olympic venues, but now the government is saddled with high maintenance costs. And the most famous facility, the Birds Nest Stadium, has been repudiated by its designer. NPRs Lisa Lim reports on how Beijings iconic structures risk becoming white elephants.

  (SOUNDBITE OF DRUMS)

  (SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)

  LOUISA LIM, BYLINE: To the bang of drums and the roar of the crowd, Beijings Olympics opened with a boom. The spectacular opening ceremony was fitting for the spectacular Birds Nest Stadium. Girdled with strips of concrete, it was an ambitious structure for a new superpower. But four years on, the Birds Nest is looking tired and empty.

  UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)

  LIM: Today, a smattering of mostly Chinese tour groups trickles through the stadium. Visitor numbers are in freefall, plummeting by half, year on year. The Birds Nest cost $480 million to build and its upkeep costs $11 million a year.

  Resting in the stands, Christian Lodz and Henne Zelle from Germany arent too impressed.

  CHRISTIAN LODZ: For me, its just a huge concrete place. Personally I think, after four years, it looks a little bit shabby, I guess.

  HENNE ZELLE: What I think is interesting is that its just not used for anything useful. I mean, theres like a construction zone there, and it looks kind of dirty.

  LIM: Im now sitting in the stands looking at this endless expanse of empty seats - 91,000 of them to be exact. And thats the real problem: What to do with this iconic structure.

  Since the Olympics, theyve tried all kinds of things. These include using fake snow and man-made ski slopes in winter to turn it into a winter wonderland and even having a tightrope walker who spent two months living on a tightrope suspended above the Birds Nest to make a world record.

  UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Usain Bolt, sprinting ahead, winning by daylight.

  (SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)

  UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: And setting a world record.

  LIM: Im now whizzing around the very track where Usain Bolt won his gold medal for the 100 meters. But Im not on foot. Im actually using a Segway, one of those weird two-wheeled vehicles. And this is one of the money making schemes thats being tried out at the Birds Nest. For just over $20 for 15 minutes, tourists can whizz around the track on Segways. Its quite good fun, I have to say, but not many people are dong it and Im not quite sure how to stop.

  Its a bit different at the Water Cube where the swimming events were held. This has found a post-Olympic afterlife. Its been turned into a water park, where swimmers shoot down colorful tubes into pools of water. Its even launched a line of branded goods, including Water Cube alcohol, which sells at a cool $150 a bottle. But still, turning a profit isnt easy.

  YANG QIYONG: (Through translator) Its extremely, extremely difficult not to lose money.

  LIM: Thats Yang Qiyong, the deputy manager of the Water Cube. He says it breaks even - just - but needs big government subsidies.

  QIYONG: (Through translator) The government gave us subsidies of $1.5 million U.S. last year. Without that money, we couldnt hold important sports events. Some international competitions clearly lose lots of money. But in order to maintain our venues image, we must host them.

  LIM: And its all about image.

  WANG XIAOYU: (Foreign language spoken)

  LIM: To Chinese visitors to the Birds Nest, like Wang Xiaoyu, these buildings prove that China can hold its own, architecturally. How can you not feel proud, he says, beaming from ear to ear.

  Even the audio tour sees the stadium in symbolic terms.

  UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: The Birds Nest, as a symbol of the rise of the Chinese nation, will follow the nations footsteps in its rise to glory.

  LIM: But the Chinese artist who helped conceive of the Birds Nest says he regrets having designed such a monument to Chinas Communist leaders. Ai Weiwei has never set foot inside the finished building. He told NPR the stadium has become entirely divorced from ordinary people.

  AI WEIWEI: We love this building, but we dont like the content they have put in, you know, the kind of propaganda. They dissociated this building with citizens celebration or happiness. Its not integrated with the citys life. So I told them I will never go to this building.

  (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

  LIM: The triumphant music pumped out into the Birds Nest over video of cheering crowds, now falls into a vacuum. It was designed as a stage for Chinas coming-out party, to send a message to the world. But in this land of government-backed vanity projects, the empty, echoing stadium now sends a very different message.

  Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.