Serving to Ghosts at Abandoned Olympic Beach Volleyball Court
Lazing on the silver Hainan sand, you stare up at the blue sky, your shadow hiding from the midday sun. A couple of local mutts run pawprint circles in the pristine sand, lines of distant kites intersect with vapor trails of planes jetting off to remote climes. A dog paws at the sand beside you. As you sit up, you hear Michael Bolton on the sound system and with a bump you’re back in Beijing. Specifically, you're surrounded by the Beijing Olympic Beach Volleyball Court.
Enter the stadium just as the Olympians would have done over a decade ago
Just a stone’s throw from the abandoned remains of the Beijing Skyview Ferris Wheel, lies the Beijing Olympic Beach Volleyball Court. Once a crown jewel of the 2008 Olympic glory, the court’s sands now lie empty like an abandoned metal colosseum, the 12,000 seat capacity waiting for the volleyball gladiators to bound onto the 17,000 tonnes of imported Hainan silver sand, still glistening a decade later.
READ: Exploring Chaoyang Park Ferris Wheel, the Colossal Attraction That Never Was
Despite the neglect, the stadium is in pretty good shape
Technically speaking, you’re lying in the middle of the main competition ground, but if you dare to climb up the forty rows of sky blue and sunshine yellow seats, and look down at the surrounding complex, you’ll find two warmup grounds and six training grounds, which now, instead of Olympians, feature hundreds of kids building castles and peeing in the sand as part of the Beijing Ocean-Beach Carnival which has been hosted there every summer since 2009.
However, the main competition ground has lain empty since 2012 when it hosted the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour. Perhaps those argent sands are a bitter reminder to the Beijing Olympic Team, whose best result was a silver medal for the women’s volleyball team beaten by the unstoppable US team led by three-time gold medalist Misty May harking from the more golden California beaches.
The stadium lies in wait for its next mission
Chaoyang Park seems at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the abandoned mega-structure. Taking a break from sipping hot water from a flask in the café of the adjacent impossibly boring Museum of Global Finance, a black-uniformed guard cycles the perimeter of the stadium every hour, but leaving the stadium gates wide open, giving you the perfect opportunity to nip into the hidden beach at the heart of the city.
But there will be no cry of “jia you!” from the audience as you enter, indeed the only sound is the continuous cackle of magpies which nest in the framework of the building. If you can’t afford a beach holiday this winter, the Beijing Olympic Volleyball Court might be your best alternative, just don’t forget to wrap up.
Want more? Read this: Urbex in Beijing: Exploring the City’s Decaying Sights
Photos: Burbex Brin
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