Beijing Olympic Venues Ready for Games

Washington, DC   28 December 2007

Olympic organizers say all the venues for next year's Games in Beijing have been finished except for the massive, 91-thousand seat National Stadium known as "the Bird's Nest."

Beijing Games executive vice president Jiang Xiaoyu said Friday that 36 of the 37 venues will be complete by December 31st. The National Stadium, nicknamed the Bird's Nest because of its exterior lattice work, should be finished by March.

Jiang said the aquatics venue is ready for a test event in January. Chinese Olympic organizers have had crews working 24 hours a day to complete the venues in time for the start of the Games on August 8th of next year. Beijing has spent an estimated $40 billion getting ready for the Games.

The preparations have not been without controversy. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have protested the forced eviction of residents and imprisonment of protesters ahead of the Games.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP . 

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