By Zhou Jing
The Olympic swimming venue Water Cube will be open to tourists during the week-long National Day holiday between September 29 and October 5, and on September 29, a daily symphonic concert with a water and light show and classic music will debut at 19:30.
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a design picture for performing stage in the Water Cube
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The performance is scheduled to play for four months until February in 2009, said Kang Wei, president of the National Aquatics Center Company.
He said the concert will make use of the venue's existing facilities and will not have too much effect on the interior structure. The stage will be set above the diving pool so that tourist visits during the day can continue as scheduled.
Various musical fountains will be installed in the swimming pool. As the music changes, the fountains' forms will alter. "The interaction between water, lighting, and music will generate a sense of marvel in the visitors," said Kang, adding that the concert would highlight the charm of the Cube's essential aquatic nature through the symphonies.
Concert tickets will be available at prices of 200, 400, 600 and 800 yuan and the crowd capacity will be the same as during the Olympics.
Kang said that there are two things that tourists should not miss while visiting the venue. One is the construction – the structure of steel and special membrane in a water environment. The other is a series of pictorial exhibitions capturing the architectural design, its concept, and its development. One in particular is a "Winners' Wall" with over 20 meters of pictures of Olympic medalists' memorable moments.
Some people have concerns about sound quality. The Cube's Chinese Designer Zhao Xiaojun explains: "Acoustics was one of the most important things to consider when designing the venue. A water surface reflects sound well, so the echo in the venue tends to be loud. To provide events like the synchronized swimming with good quality sound, we had to overcome the problem of reverb. After numerous experiments and calculations, we finally decided to make use of a kind of porous soundproofing, which proved an ideal solution to the problem. Generally, sound reverb will last for 4-5 seconds in a normal swimming center, while in Water Cube it's about 2 seconds and meets the requirements of an auditorium for a concert."
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The Olympic swimming venue Water Cube
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A reporter from the newspaper The First interviewed several tourists on September 22. Most were anticipating the concert with enthusiasm, although others felt it too up-market for ordinary people to appreciate, and thought some kind of informal or popular performances in the venue might generate more interest among ordinary people.
The National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, will also be open to the public by the end of the month. For the coming week-long National Day holiday, visiting the Bird's Nest will cost 50 yuan. There will be 80,000 tickets available daily. Similarly, there will be 12,000 tickets costing 30 yuan each available each day for visits to the Water Cube.
Other major Olympic venues will open to the public for sporting activities starting this month. These include the Beijing Capital Stadium, Beijing Shooting Range, Laoshan Velodrome and the Mountain Bike course, the National Sports Training Center, the Beijing Olympic Sports Center, and Beijing Sports University.
