济南奥林匹克体育中心

Jinan Olympic Sports Center runs along Jingshi East Road in Lixia District, in the Longdong area of the eastern Yanshan New District. It was the main venue of the 11th National Games and is Jinan's largest and most complete sports investment. The 81 ha site carries about 350,000 sqm of floor area for a cost of roughly 3.5 billion yuan; ground was broken in May 2006 and the complex opened in May 2009. Its one-stadium, three-halls programme comprises a 60,000-seat stadium, a 12,000-seat arena, a 4,000-seat tennis hall and a 4,000-seat swimming hall, plus a central podium plaza of some 60,000 sqm. The masterplan takes the local imagery of east lotus, west willow: the stadium on the west is shaped as a willow leaf, covering 131,000 sqm of floor area on a 66,000 sqm footprint, its roof lifted by a steel skeleton into a spreading blade-like surface, while the arena, tennis hall and swimming hall on the east form a lotus with petals opening around the concourse and glowing over the water gardens at night. Podiums and landscape axes tie the halls together, allowing separate event-day circulation and, after the Games, public access to swimming, badminton, tennis and ice sports alongside concerts and exhibitions. As the National Games main venue it staged the opening ceremony, athletics and football, and it served as a home ground for Shandong Taishan. The Jingshi East Road corridor around it has become an eastern civic and business sub-centre of Jinan, served by dense bus routes, planned metro stations in the Olympic district and quick links to the Jingshi expressway and the ring road.