Beijing’s Olympic Forest Goes For Gold With Sustainability
Image source: BusinessWeek.com
With Beijing getting all spic and span for the 2008 Olympic Games, a host of ideas are being considered for the Olympic Forest Park, a multimillion-dollar, 680-hectare green space planned for the northern portion of the city. Besides serving as the venue for Tennis, Archery, and Hockey, the area will also include a massive man-made mountain and a lake in the shape of a dragon. Since Beijing is not the type of city where deep breaths are naturally good for you, China is hoping this engineering feat will create a "green lung" for the growing metropolis.
Some of the ideas being considered include Grasscrete. As the name suggests, the concept embraces a harmonious relationship with grass and concrete to create footpaths through the area. The concrete is made from recycled materials while the grass allows for sustainable drainage and a natural filtration system. Also part of Olympic Forest Park will be porous concrete, which allows water to percolate through instead of running off. This allows the ground to stay moist and require less watering for surrounding areas.
All of these efforts will enable the forest to collect and recycle almost 95% of the rainwater that falls. Amphitheatres and sports facilities will be designed so as not to pollute or overwhelm the sounds of nature. In addition to the tens of thousands of trees and bushes to be planted, wind channels will also be created and rocks specially situated to acoustically maximize the forest ambience. China is hoping this Olympic feat — due to be completed by the end of this year — will be a model for other cities to embrace. Imagine if this was required for every host urban area to implement?
Check out CNET's tour of the latest green products on display at this year's China Beijing International High Tech Expo. We hope to update you with more on Beijing's massive new green addition as the finishing touches are put in place.
Tags: biejing, green, Landscaping, olympics, sustainable living
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May 28th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Green is really green, Nature is green. I liked your post very much. Is that artificial Olympic forest ? The above picture is amazing.
May 29th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
It's a shame that the Olympics are going to be held in China, even if they are trying to be a tiny bit more sustainable. This almost seems like a greenwashing attempt to disguise their horrible human rights abuses that continue to this day. Their human rights abuses just don't line up with Olympic ideals. Until they stop occupying Tibet and stop persecuting people for practicing their religion, the Olympics should steer clear of China. See http://www.racefortibet.org more info.
~Megan Prusynski
my site | volksvegan adventures | unplug
May 31st, 2007 at 8:22 am
ZOMFSM! Let’s see…
Horrible human rights abuses? Well.. Slaughtering 650000+ Iraqis is pretty much a war crime, not a “human rights abuse”.
Abu Ghriab? Guantanamo? Halliburton building dozens of new “immigrants detention facilities” around US?
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq littered with cancerous depleted uranium shells?
1 Million+ dead iraqis from Clinton’s fascist embargos? Thatcher said on live tv “it was worth it”…
Who the fuck put Suhatro in power in Indonesia? Or Saddam in Iraq? Or the Shah of Iran? Or Pinochet in Chile? And on and on and on…
Do I need to go on?
China never invaded anyone. China did not melt 3 million vietnamese with napalm. China does not piss on the entire middle east, like US and UK do and did for the last century. Nor did they deport hundreds of thousands from Africa to build up their country and their economy.
Also, the shitty environment we have today is because of the pollution from the “civilized” west. But, with your usual hypocrisy, what *you* do doesn’t matter, or is for “spreading democracy” and crap like that… The environment is bad *today* and that’s that.
Who fucked it up by retarded uncontrolled capitalist growth doesn’t matter. All that matter is pointing the finger at others while maintaining *your way of life*…
At least they are trying. I don’t see your capitalist corporate fucks doing ANYTHING about THEIR pollution, except throwing millions of dollars in advertising how *green* they are. Funding anti-global warming “independent” NGOs and crap.
Before criticizing other people you should look in the mirror. United States’ abuses, wehter they are abuses on people or on nature, are far worse than China’s. History doesn’t start today.
June 2nd, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Megan you are wrong! so so so wrong!
USA should be banned from the Olympics!
June 3rd, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Hey I'm not saying the US is any better… you're right, the US doesn't live up to Olympic ideals either. I certainly don't condone anything my government is doing right now, and the US is certainly guilty of many human rights and environmental abuses. That doesn't excuse China though. Human rights abuses are human rights abuses, no matter who commits them.
~Megan Prusynski
my site | volksvegan adventures | unplug