After five years of construction, China unveiled its National Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games. Known as the Bird’s Nest, the stadium embodied the weight of China’s history and its lofty ambitions for the future. Chinese citizens flocked to the construction site to witness the birth of an icon symbolizing China’s role as the 21st century’s rising economic power. Chinese people held great expectations of what their country could build, and what it could represent in the eyes of the world.
