Olympic Games

Venues-Wukesong Indoor Stadium

A golden box for basketball

Last Updated: Thursday, August 13, 2009 | 2:29 PM ET

Bernice Chan CBC Sports

A view of the exterior of the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium in Beijing, China. It has three floors underground and four floors aboveground, with capacity for 18,000 spectators. (Feng Li/Getty Images)

China now has its own basketball mecca in Beijing: the Wukesong Indoor Stadium. You can’t see it from the fourth ring road on the west side of the city, but once you drive past the Wukesong Baseball Field, there it is -- a giant golden box.

When I went to see it on a crisp January day under blue skies, the basketball gymnasium really stood out. Construction was going on at a maddening pace and the migrant workers on the site stared at us media folk carrying tripods, cameras and notebooks. It looked like they wanted an excuse to take a break from their hard work.

As we approached the building, I could see the golden box was covered in wavy perforated steel ribbons, their tips metaphorically waving in the wind.

Cheesy Chinese lanterns

But my poetic thoughts of the indoor stadium abruptly ended as soon as we turned the corner and saw a gigantic inflated red arch at the entrance, with white Chinese characters hailing the opening of the venue, complete with cheesy Chinese red lanterns hanging from posts.

A view of the interior of the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium in Beijing, China. (Guang Niu/Getty Images)The lobby area wasn’t much to look at, lots of concrete and low ceilings. But then we were ushered up the stairs where from the top we stood in awe, looking down at the basketball court, the giant speaker and screen system suspended above it, surrounded by 18,000 seats. Tres cool.

Before we could inspect the place any further, we were subjected to an hour-long presentation by numerous officials -- municipal, sport-related, designers and others seated at a long head table. Each basically said the same thing, over and over – how this basketball stadium will be a fantastic showcase for the Beijing Olympics and how it will help promote this already popular sport in China.

We weren’t allowed to ask questions and the large entourage was led away to have their own private tour of the facilities while we waited for our own media tour.

22 tons of speakers

Finally we were led back onto the basketball court, with the wooden planks from Germany that can be removed in patches to create an ice rink. I asked one of the architects how long it would take to do that from start to finish, but he didn’t know. Maybe it’s one of those possibilities officials want to keep open, so they can brag about later.

The giant collection of speakers and LED screens weighs some 22 tons and while we were there, the sound system cranked out John Williams’ Star Wars theme – over and over and over. Encircling the seating area is a digital ribbon of exhortations, sending out messages telling people to cheer, or shout “Go Pistons Go!” It didn’t feel like a Chinese stadium at all.

The architect said the building was environmentally friendly in that the perforated steel columns outside allowed more natural light into the building. But that was only in the lobby area. The actual basketball court is illuminated by artificial lights.

There’s also supposed to be solar heating panels and a rainwater collection system, but we weren’t allowed on the roof to see for ourselves.

As we left the building, the officials long gone, the migrant workers returned to work on the outside of the stadium, kicking up more dust into the cold blue sky.