Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

I woke up at 5:00 AM Vancouver time to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony and I am glad I did. It was a magnificent show! Hope the following images will encourage you to watch it later if you have missed it! I have recommended all of my friends to watch it tonight when NBC shows it again.

I wanted to blog about these two buildings for sometime now. The Beijing National Stadium will be the primary architecture for the 2008 Olympic in China. It will held all of the track & field competitions plus the opening and closing ceremonies. The stadium is also known as the "Bird's Nest" due to it's amazing design. The architects of the "Bird Nest" are Pritzker Prize-winners Herzog & de Meuron plus several other super talented architects. The stadium seats 100 thousands audiences during the Olympics. The entire "Bird Nest" is constructed using over 45 thousands tons of steel and cost over 450 million USD. Here are some beautiful pictures of this amazing architecture:

The other amazing architecture built for the Olympic 2008 is the Beijing National Aquatics Centre, also known as the "Water Cube". It's built alongside Beijing National Stadium. It is constructed using ETFE clad structure so the outlook of the building is like a water cube. It will host all of the aquatic competitions during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Here are some shots of the "Water Cube":

Here is a all-together shot:

According to the formal Beijing Olympic ticket center, over 50000 people successfully submitted their registrations through the web site (www.tickets.beijing2008.cn). The overall traffic to the web site in the past 24 hours have exceeded 1 million. The overall tickets requests reach 250000 (most registrations are requesting for multiple tickets). The officials emphasized on the fact that phase 1 is only a "lottery" process which means "Whether you submit your application early or on the last day, you will have an equal chance of securing tickets." So, take your time and plan well for your trip if you are traveling to Beijing.

UPDATE: A New Route (Guang Zhou - Lhasa) has been launched today. Check it out HERE

UPDATE: Here is a great article and a video clip from the reporters who were among the first crew took a train ride into Tibet.

UPDATE: The Tibet train ticket price is announced, the highest price ("ruan wo" - 1 sealed cabin with 4 high end bed) is from Beijing to Tibet which would cost 1280 RMB (CAD $182) which is about 1/3 price of a plane ticket.

It's called "train to the roof of the world" - the official rail way from Beijing to Lhasa has been finished! Since Tibet land is an average of 4000 meters (13, 123 ft) above the sea level, the rail way building process has been extremely difficult. It took the Chinese people over 40 years to build! This long anticipated railway to Tibet will open in July. The train ride will be a quite luxury experiences:
- running at a fast speed: 160 km/hr. The overall distance between Beijing to Lhasa is over 4000 kilometer and the trip will take less than 48 hours;
- oxygen under every seat and bed and the train's general ventilation system keeps the oxygen level in the train above 25%. It's like a "moving oxygen bar"!
- anti-electricity shocks just like on the air plane. (since the train will ride at high altitudes where rain clouds are very low to the ground. These clouds carries high electricity charges and may shock the train)
- unlike the old time train rides, all of the wastes from the train are spread all over the rail way, the Tibet train is equipped with a sophisticated recycle system to protect the ecosystems on the world's roof
- restaurant, bar, showers, folk dance shows and karaoke rooms will be available on the train!
- satellite TV programs and other entertainment devices will accompany the riders through the 48 hours.

The estimated price for the train ride should be cheaper than the plane ride and the bus ride: <1000 Yuan (less than 200 CAD dollars) from Cheng Du to Lhasa. (From Beijing to Cheng Du is regular rail way).

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to hop onto the train!

But before you plan your trip, make sure you read this article: Travelling to Tibet? Tibet Travel Permit You will Need!

The official Shaolin Temple web site (