Beijing is renovating 11 old sports gymnasiums to make them standard venues for next summer’s Olympic Games. The number of such facilities represents one third of the 31 competition venues located in Beijing because the Games organizers want to hold ‘economical’ Olympics.

he task of renovation and extension is complicated as many of the gyms were built in the 1950s or 1960s, and they have shortcomings in firefighting devices, structure design or service equipment. And extra features are being added.

The Workers’ Stadium, built in 1959, is being turned into a football venue for the 2008 Games as you can see in our illustration. All its fire-proof materials have been renewed.
The 36-year-old Workers’ Indoor Stadium has a new air conditioning system and access facilities have been installed to meet the needs of the Olympic boxing and the Paralympic judo competitions.
The Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, a handball venue in 2008, has new electricity-powered blind windows and open-type windows installed to improve natural ventilation and lighting.
Ying Tung Natatorium, where the water polo and swimming competitions of modern pentathlon will be held now has a solar energy collection system to warm up the waters at the swimming pools. The new moisture-drawing system there can lower the humidity inside the venue.
In the Capital Indoor Stadium, a volleyball venue for the Olympics, 62 dampers have been installed and the building’s roof has been reinforced to enable it to endure an earthquake measuring as high as 8 on the Richter scale. The newly-installed residual heat exchanger there can make use of the residual heat produced by the building itself.

On July 11, 2007, Beijing Municipal CPC Committee Secretary and President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) Liu Qi paid a site visit to the projects while updated on their progress. He encourage the constructors to abide by the ‘frugality’ principle, build high-standard and quality venues, find ways of their post-Games use to ‘better serve the Olympics and the residents at large.’
Source: Beijing 2008