A Sprite-branded table at the Water Cube

Coke is winning big at the Olympics’ two marquee venues — the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube.

At the Water Cube, the concession area is a solid Sprite green. The green signs for food and drink are sandwiched between images of a Chinese man drinking a Sprite. Nearby are Sprite-branded, green pedestal tables and umbrellas.

While the Water Cube concessions are dominated by Sprite green, the Bird’s Nest, which glows red at night, is dominated by Coke red. From the signs to the tables to the umbrellas, everything’s red and branded for Coke.

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Chinese Love Stamps, But Apparently Not Shirts, Hats

Several people have told me that the Chinese are collectors, and the lines for merchandise at the Water Cube on Saturday proved them correct.

The Water Cube had two merchandise outposts — one managed by the China Post Office that sold stamps and postcards, and one managed by a traditional retailer that sold T-shirts and hats. The line for the China Post Office was 10 deep. I waited 15 minutes to get to the sales counter, and one guy ahead of me in line told me that was nothing. He said he waited for an hour earlier in the day and never reached the sales counter.

Why the delay?

Each Chinese customer who stepped up to the counter in front of me would ask to look at an item. They would open a book of stamps, study them, flip through the book and pass them back to the post office worker. Then they would ask for another one. I watched one person ask for six different items and he still hadn’t bought anything by the time I had bought a few postcards to mail back home.

As for the T-shirts, well, walk right up, folks. There was no line for shirts or hats. And few people seemed interested in those items at all. 

Under The Bubble At The Water Cube

The Water Cube may not have opened with 30,000 fireworks like the Bird’s Nest across the way, but it’s quickly become a favorite at the Beijing Games.

On the Olympic Green, many people stop to take photos of it. Others stop and stare, watching as its bubbled exterior fades from rose to green to fuchsia and blue.

The venue officially opened on Saturday with the preliminaries of swimming, and I stopped by to check it out.  From inside the swimming pool area, the Water Cube looks somewhat like a box wrapped in Saran Wrap. Occasionally, its interior bubbles flutter.

The spectator side of the venue has 50 rows of seats, but the view from the top is better than the view from the top of Omaha’s Quest Center where the U.S. Olympic trials were held. That’s due in part to the way the rows of seats seem to rise straight up rather than back the way they do in most American arenas.

The one downside to sitting up high was that there was no air. While the concourse of the building is air conditioned and the lower-level seats feel cool, the air is stale and hot up high. Many people were fanning themselves to keep cool.

One of the coolest things about the Cube is that you can walk down a hallway separating the main pool from the warm up pool. The hallway has glass walls, so you can watch the swimmers as they warm up.