The Water Cube

Last week I attended a diving competition in the newly constructed Water Cube. The event was some sort of world tournament leading up to the Olympics, I don't know, I saw China's best diver Guo Jingjing, but it didn't matter since I was there mainly to check out the new venue (the only opportunity before the Summer Games in August, which I don't have tickets for). In fact, I plan on attending another Good Luck Beijing event (a means of testing the venues before the big tamale) at the new mammoth-sized stadium, the Bird's Nest.

The building, designed by a firm out of Sydney, prtrays a glowing box of water from the outside and with no beams supporting the interior, the space above the two pools of water (one for swimming, one for diving) is more than impressive as the translucent walls and ceiling filter in sunlight as if you where in a, well, water cube . This architecturally arousing structure will certainly get the attention of the world in 2008 if it hasn't already.

Although I was in awe during the majority of the event, my experience in such edifice was not without disappointment. In terms of the building's construction, 99% was built exactly to capture the imagination of the designer, but the last 1% has yet to be completed. This lack of "finishing"plagues many new buildings in Beijing - tiles lay uneven with large cracks, oil stains or indentations from clumsy workers are noticeable, wallpaper begins to peel, toilets leak, and objects are months away from falling off walls or sides of buildings (not surprising when the most popular adhesive is still mud). Because of the lack of skilled workmanship (everyone with a hard hat is a farmer) and the fact that Chinese standards of luxury still suffer from decades absent of wealth and aesthetics, this problem may only be noticeable to the Western eye for now.

Another disappointment was the lack of civility observable in this state-of-the-art facility such as smoking in bathrooms and throwing trash in recycling bins. In terms of management, anybody running around during a dive or making a commotion was approached by one the hundreds of pimply faced volunteers - for some reason I don't see these kids quelling rowdy foreigners during an Olympic event.

I think the Olympics will impress people, but more importantly I hope the outside world will help Beijing realize, despite their lame "We Are Ready" song, that in fact they aren't.

If I was Speilberg these problems would already have been improved upon.