Scenes from China

An amazingly diverse set of pictures from around China showing many different facets of comtemporary life in that huge country.

Scenes from China - The Big Picture - Boston.com:

The Water Cube Is Now a Water Park

     When we last traveled to China, it was September 2008. The Beijing Olympics had just finished a few weeks before, and we were hoping to get a chance to visit some of the venues that we had seen on TV back home in the States. What we didn't know until we got to China was that after the Olympics is held, the same country then gets to sponsor the Paralympics, and those games had begun on the day we arrived. Since the "Bird's Nest" and the "Water Cube" were still being used for competitions, we had to settle for viewing them from the outside. (Access was limited to folks having tickets for the events, of course.) Here's a pic of the family (minus our youngest daughter, who we hadn't picked up, yet) showing how close we were able to get.

     In the 2 years since that visit, we have heard that the Chinese government has been having trouble scheduling events large enough to use the Bird's Nest. But we hadn't heard much about what was happening to the Water Cube. Well, early last month it was re-opened as the largest water park in Asia. You can read the full report here. And here is a video showing a little of what this new attraction looks like.



     This seems like a very creative use of this venue, and hopefully it will be very successful. Now, what can they turn the Bird's Nest into?