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Beijing’s Olympic Problem: Too Much Seoul
The social cost of building an olympic city
After winning the 2008 Olympic bid, the Chinese government boasted that this year’s summer games in Beijing would be the best ever — and put their money where their mouth was, with an astonishing $40 billion in development. A 91,000-seat National Stadium, the National Aquatics Center, which resembles a giant water cube, a 680-acre forest, complete with an artificial mountain and lake, are just some of the city’s latest creations. These feats fueled the storyline that China has fully arrived as a major industrial powerhouse, but the social costs of this enormous city-planning endeavor have received little notice.
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