New uses found for some Beijing Games venues

Tuesday was the last day of summer by the lunar calendar, and the hottest. More than 18 provinces issued extreme-heat warnings. Even overcast Beijing felt like a sauna as high temperatures and humidity took hold.

But inside the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, amateurs happily sweated through a televised variety show, competing in kayaking, canoeing, skiing and dragon-boat racing as friends and families cheered them on from lush and neatly trimmed lawns.

Not far away, a summer camp of primary and middle-school pupils were learning the basics of wakeboarding and jet-skiing from professional coaches, their screams and laughter louder than the loudspeakers of the variety show.

The park is one of more than 30 major sport facilities built for the Olympic Games in Beijing five years ago, and most of the time, the quietest.

Other Olympic venues, such as the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium and Water Cube aquatics centre were built in bustling urban centres.

Both, especially the "Bird's Nest" were dismissed as white elephants and have struggled to attract the kind of high-profile events needed to fill seats. But they have become landmarks and attract a steady stream of visitors. The water park is in Shunyi district, more than an hour's drive from downtown, without any densely populated communities nearby.