Beijing preparations for the Olympics

By STEPHEN WADE, AP Sports Writer Mon Jul 30, 1:05 PM ET

Here's a look at some of the venues and preparations under way in Beijing for next summer's Olympics.

THE GAMES: The Beijing Olympics begin Aug. 8, 2008.

PEOPLE: Organizers expect 550,000 foreign visitors and 22,000 journalists, with 550,000 local volunteers lined up to help - one for every guest.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Beijing is spending $40 billion to remake its subways, roads and image. The hubbub is driving up hotel prices.

ETIQUETTE: Government-sponsored etiquette campaigns are working to stamp out bad manners like jumping ahead in line, spitting, littering and reckless driving.

ENGLISH: Cab drivers are under pressure to learn some English. A program called "Crazy English" draws 10,000 volunteers to gung-ho assemblies. Officials are trying to wipe out "Chinglish," the unintelligible English that abounds on billboards, menus and storefronts.

POLLUTION: The city's choking pollution and snarled traffic will be controlled during the 17-day Olympics when at least one-third of 3.3 million vehicles will be banned, and dust-spewing building sites and sooty factories are shuttered. Billions have already been spent moving industry out of town.

VENUES:

-Beijing is the site for 31 Olympic venues — 12 new, 11 under renovation, and eight built as temporary structures. Most are located in four clusters in the north of the city.

-Five more venues are located outside Beijing in mainland China — for soccer and sailing. The other venue for equestrian events is in Hong Kong.

-The Olympic Village is located at the far northern end of the Olympic Green, a high-rise compound for 10,500 athletes.

-The Olympic Green area — site of half the competition venues — is about 10 times larger than it was in Athens and four times what it was in Sydney.

-The two centerpiece venues - buildings that will be talked about for years to come - are the Bird's Nest National Stadium, a gargantuan bowl that seats 91,000, and the Watercube National Aquatics Center, a simple box design considered the Games' "cool" building, with a translucent, blue-toned outside skin that makes the structure look like a cube of foam or bubbles.