This is Beijing-Beijing English blog

Today is the first day after the city’s two-month alternating odd-even license plate system for the Olympic Games ended.

According the official, Beijing would see more challenge after the end of the “odd-even” system which took effective on July 20 and aimed at cut air pollution and jammed traffic during the Games

The reason for the traffic challenge are as below: first, the increase of the automobile, second, the coming Nationl holiday next week.

Thirty-eight new measures will be taken by the municipal administrations, including an emergency plan for the first rush hours on Monday.

The cooperation between traffic administrations and other related offices such as observatory and environmental sanitation administrations would be continued in the post-Olympic times, said Zhang Jingchun, spokesman of the Traffic Management Bureau.

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Venue: Water Cube;

Location: Olympic Green;

Total land surface (sq. m.): 65,000 – 80,000;

Seats: 6,000 permanent and 11,000 temporary;

Functions during the Games: Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, and Synchronized Swimming;

Groundbreaking date: Dec. 24, 2003;

Water Cube, known as National Aquatics Center, which located in Beijing Olympic Green, it was mainly designed by engineers John Pauline and Toby Wong. It was built as the main natatorium for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Also, it was one of the symbol constructions of Beijing Olympics. The proposal of its design was from the idea of “Water Cube ([H2O]3)”. “Water Cube” lies in two sides Axle Wire of Beijing with “Bird’s Nest”, and both formed the City Symbol of Cultural and Historic Beijing.

The Water Cube had a planed construction area of 62950 square meters, and total construction area was 65000-80000 square meters, among underground area was not less than 15000 square meters, with the length 177 meters, width 177 meters and height 30 meters.

Water Cube” adopted ETFE membrane first time, and showed “water cube” exactly. The outside of “Water cube” looked like a blue box, and its wall was like some irregular hubble-bubble. The material of hubble-bubble also named “polyfluoroethylene”, which is strong, inoxidability, heating preservation and easy-cleaning. It can be used 15 to 20 years.

During Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, it was the main venue for Swimming, Diving, synchronized swimming, Water polo, it held 17000 seats, including 6000 permanent seats and 11000 temporary ones, the temporary seats will be torn down after the Olympics.

After the Olympics, it would be altered into a multi-functional center for sports, recreation and body-building, featuring a “water setting” to the public.

Venue: Bird’s Nest;

Location: Olympic Green;

Total land surface (sq. m.): 65,000 – 80,000;

Seats:  80000 permanent and 11,000 temporary;

Olympic events: Opening & Closing Ceremonies, Athletics, Football final;
Paralympic events: Opening and Closing ceremonies, Athletics;

“Bird’s Nest”, also named the National Stadium, which was the main venue of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It was designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize Gainer Jacques Herzog, de Meuron and Chinese Architect Li Xinggang, shaped as a “bird’s nest”, and looks like a cradle.

The National Stadium began on December 24, 2003 and was completed in March, 2008. The total construction cost was more than 2.2 billion.

The shape structure of “Bird’s Nest” is a colossal saddle-shaped elliptic steel structure with 24 truss pillars in total. It is 333 meters long from north to south, 294 meters wide from east to west, the highest point is 68.5 meters and the lowest point is 42.8 meters. It is the largest world’s steel structure. The outside was covered by a sort of membrane, it got the demand of rain-proof, and sunshine can go through transparent roof to satisfy the demand of lawn growing. This special membrane can also help lighting within the stadium and effectively diminish glare and shadowing, allowing a more favorable competition environment.

According to the news from the administrative office of the Imperial Palace, today is a free visit day to Imperial Palace is free, the total number of the visiters will reach 100,000.

Every year, the third Saturday of Sep is the National Defense Education Day. As the Imperial Palace is one of the education base, all the visits on this day will be free. Today is the third Saturday of Sep，all people can have a free visit to the Imperial Palace today. The administrative office estimate that the tourist will achieve 100,000 people today.

Since the establishment of the Imperial Palace administrative office, the free Imperial Palace free reception’s personnel achieve about 10,000,000 people. In the last year of the National Defense Education Day, the Imperial Palace free reception personnels achieved 110,000 people.

This weekend the hospital in Beijing will be busy as this weekend should be for the children sickness caused by the contaminated milk. And also the Beijing municipal goverenment promised free exams treatment to all who have sonsumed the contaminated milk. But the parents should take along with their ID cards.

Many parents at the hospital said they had not been aware of their children’s sickness until they saw the news about the tainted Sanlu milk powder.

Most chindren can have timely checks in the city, but not all children were so lucky to have timely checks at the hospital. Li Zhanshan, 47, had to find another facility for his nine-month-old son. The boy, who had been diagnosed with a kidney stone measuring 0.9 cm in diameter, was turned away after being told the hospital was fully booked.

    The man had traveled from Tangshan City in the northern Hebei Province. He said his son was in such a serious condition that hospitals in his hometown refused to take him.

    ”Whatever it takes, I’ll get my son hospitalized,” he said while leaving, a worried look on his face.

    Beijing has two children’s hospitals where the patient admissions have been on the rise. The institutions had borrowed ultrasound scanners from other hospitals.

From last week,  a preliminary investigation confirmed the contaminated Sanlu baby milk powder as the cause of kidney stones in infants after a first-phase probe by experts, China’s Ministry of Health said on Sep 12th. The baby milk power issue are talked by lots of people, especialy the young parents.

The State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said it had tested 491 batches of baby milk powder produced by all the 109 companies in the country in a special inspection move on Sep16th.

In the wake of the contaminated baby milk powder scandal, Chinese quality watchdog on Wednesday cancelled all kinds of national inspection exemptions previously given to food producers.

The Ministry of Commerce said on Sep 19th that 3,215 tonnes of milk powder had been removed from retail outlets around the country amid the tainted milk scandal, but supplies of safe domestic milk powder are sufficient.

Today marks the 76th anniversary of the 9/18 Incident, or Mukden Incident as better known in the West. The incident formally signalled the start of the 14 year Sino-Japanese War.

We cannot forget what happened during WWII. We must continue our press the Japanese parliament to formally recognized their sin. And we must continue to pressure the Japanese government to make denial of their WWII sin a criminal act, just like what denying the Holocaust would cost one in the West.

The closing ceremony of the Beijing Paralympic Games was held in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, in north Beijing at 8 p.m. Wednesday.