The Capital Indoor Stadium In Beijing

The Capital Indoor Stadium (CIS) is showing a fresh face as one of the 11 newly renovated venues for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Built in 1968, the 18,000 seat stadium has been a comprehensive sport facility for table tennis, badminton, volleyball, basketball and gymnastics competitions, in addition to skating and ice hockey sports. In 2001, it was renovated to become a venue for the World University Games, while the latest expansion to an area of 54,707 sq m follows international standards, giving it many more functions to meet Olympic requirements.
The competition court, training courts and Games-time functional rooms were all renovated, with the ticket counter and registration center built from scratch.

The renovation project extended the CIS's life by 30 years. Now, the structure is capable of enduring an earthquake measuring eight on the Richter scale, and has saved the country much money.
The CIS is friendly to people with disabilities, thanks to its newly-built handicap-accessible facilities, such as two lifts on its western side, an easy to use entrance and enlarged toilets. Six boxes on its third floor, seating a total of 48 wheelchair users, are reserved for people with disabilities.
"All the floor planks here were imported and manufactured according to the NBA requirements," project manager Yang Chunlin told the press.
Furthermore, there is a skating ground underneath the movable planks, chief engineer Han Fushi said.
The temperature of the CIS is required to remain between 18 and 28 grade Celsius to cater for winter and summer competitions. To solve the question of air conditioning, water coolants were used to replace ammonia and freon for the sake of ozone layer protection.