Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News

CHINA'S National Stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest," was pronounced fully operational on Saturday, signaling the readiness of all 37 venues for August's Beijing Olympic Games.

"The Bird's Nest is the last completed Olympic venue but the best," said Tan Xiaochun, chief commander of the project.

Covering 20.4 hectares in the Beijing Olympic Green, the bowl-shaped structure with its prominent girders can seat 91,000 spectators. It will be used for the Games' opening and closing ceremonies, track and field events, men's soccer and some Paralympics events in September.

The eye-catching stadium has been a news maker ever since the unveiling of its blueprint. Designed by Swiss firm Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and China Architecture Design and Research Institute, among other collaborators, the design beat dozens of others in a worldwide competition in 2003.

It also topped the architecture category for the 100 most influential designs in Time magazine this year.

The seating is on an interlocking network of steel bars, which makes every seat equal and brings the audience back to nature, said Li Aiqing, the National Stadium Co Ltd chairman. The complex allows in maximum sunshine, making spectators feel as if they are in a forest, he said.

The first gold medal in the stadium was won by 18-year-old Australian Jared Tallent on April 18 when a test event was held. He said the stadium had been his dream place.

The US$500 million venue has a solar power system on top of its ticket office and a system that collects 58,000 tonnes of rainfall a year for irrigation and cleansing.