Beijing 2008: Showcasing China
Under the vision of “Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics and People’s Olympics”, the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 aimed to showcase China’s position and potential in the modern world. Benefits in the fields of sport, education and culture, the environment and urban development are still alive in the Chinese capital.
Sporting development
After the Olympic Games, various sports disciplines enjoyed a boom, and the sports industry experienced rapid growth across China. The best example is tennis, which experienced substantial growth in interest and participation. Programmes such as Fly Solo were also introduced, increasing athlete autonomy. As a result, many Chinese athletes are now developing their own businesses and brands while attracting huge social media followings, among them former Olympic gold medallist Li Ning (gymnastics).
Education and culture
Thanks to the Olympic Games, approximately 400 million young people have benefitted from Olympic education programmes, which were rolled out at all primary and middle schools across country. Olympic values and knowledge and Olympic-related themes were the focus of these programmes, which also taught new skills such as foreign languages and saw the inclusion of winter sports on the school curriculum. Citizens had the opportunity to experience a four-year cultural festival in the follow-up to the Olympic Games, while witnessing numerous restorations of cultural heritage sites. Since its foundation in 2009, the Beijing Olympic Development Association (BODA) has led and supported cultural and educational events in the city, such as the Beijing Olympic City Sports & Culture Festival, an annual festival devoted to urban sport and culture. BODA is the Olympic legacy entity for both Beijing 2008 and Beijing 2022.
Environment
Beijing was keen to address the issue of pollution, and used the momentum created by the Olympic Games to put in place major environmental improvements in the country. China’s new environmental policy was focussed on diversifying the country’s energy structure and developing the green energy sector. Prior to the Olympic Games, 15,000 coal-burning boilers in the city and surrounding areas were replaced with cleaner energy sources, benefitting residents. The natural gas supply was almost quadrupled from 2000 to 2006. From 2005 to 2006, Beijing saw an increase of 17.6 per cent in the number of solar heaters. China is now the world's largest solar products maker and generator. Its total solar power capacity increased to 392.61GW in 2022, over nine times the 2015 figure, four times the USA’s figure, and enough to power nearly 73 million average Chinese homes.
Urban development
Significant investments were granted to build new elements of urban infrastructure such as highways, subway lines and an airport terminal, and construction work was accelerated by the hosting of the Olympic Games. In terms of purpose-built Olympic venues, the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, and the Aquatics Centre, or “Water Cube”, became iconic buildings of the new Beijing, though both still partially rely on state financial support. The Olympic basketball stadium is privately run and has managed to secure sponsorship and resident teams, hosting over 100 sporting and non-sporting events per year. The venues at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Park were used for ice sports competitions during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.