National Stadium

What to Know About Traveling to China for Business | Condé Nast Traveler

"I recall the August 8, 2008 opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics in the National Stadium, otherwise known as the Bird’s Nest—directed by Zhang Yimou—which served as a watershed moment in China’s relationship with the wider world. The spectacle had a reported $300 million budget, featured 15,000 volunteer performers including 2,008 choreographed drummers, packed the stadium with global leaders such as US president George W. Bush and Russia's then-prime minister Vladimir Putin, and was watched by an estimated 2 billion people on television; one of the Games’ themes was “Beijing Welcomes You,” capturing the era’s sense of a rising, outward-looking China." - Mitch Moxley