Olympic Countdown 100 Days Field Visit Camp: The London Bowl still looks like a construction site

The pressure that the unparalleled Beijing Olympics has brought to the British can be imagined, but that may be all for the officials. In London, which has already had two Olympic Games, how much do people expect to score three goals? Our newspaper's Olympic camp exploration team conducted an on-site visit before the 100-day countdown.

Song Lingyan, Xia Xiaowen and Liu Jin are all international students in Hangzhou at the University of East Anglia in the UK. Another boy, Lin Mingde, is from Hong Kong. Song Lingyan will also provide volunteer services for the London Olympics this summer. Being in a foreign country and attending such a global event, several students all had the same feeling: compared with the Beijing Olympics at the same time, the atmosphere was completely different. For a city that has hosted the Olympics twice, perhaps Londoners have already learned to view the Olympics with a mature attitude and not be surprised.

The "London Bowl" looks like a big construction site

The main venue "London Bowl" can be said to be the core building of this Olympics. It is narrow at the bottom and wide at the top, resembling a soup bowl. Got its name. We went to visit this imaginary great building with great expectations, but were a little disappointed when we saw it. It was supposed to be a giant venue surrounded by water on three sides, but it did not look as majestic as imagined against the backdrop of the large construction site still under construction outside the venue. Trucks transporting earth and stone are still busy, and many wastelands are still exposed and unmaintained. In such a large venue, a red tower-shaped building is particularly eye-catching. Could this be the Olympic Torch Tower that lit the flame during the opening ceremony? It's certainly unknown at this time.

This was the first time we visited such a huge venue group. Unfortunately, we finally got lost, but this had nothing to do with the fact that the road signs and direction boards near the venue were not fully installed. Fortunately, a construction worker enthusiastically helped us show the way. This man is responsible for the road maintenance work near the "London Bowl". As a construction worker who is personally involved, he expressed his expectations for the Olympics to us and wished us a happy trip.

I really wanted to see the highlight of the "London Bowl", that is, its unique "heritage" design concept: 25,000 seats are designed under the ground level, and 55,000 seats are designed under the ground level. After the Olympic Games, the temporary stands were demolished and the main venue can continue to be used as a community stadium. However, since the main venue was closed to visitors, we were still blocked by the wire wall and had to pay our respects from a distance along the road.

There is no "London Welcomes You" and no Olympic souvenir shop

King's Cross Station, located in the center of London, has a history of 160 years. The west side is close to the terminal of international trains. From here, it only takes two and a half hours to take the "Eurostar" to Paris. For such a transportation hub, there is neither a slogan saying "Welcome to the London Olympics" nor an Olympic souvenir franchise store in the entire station.

Kings Cross St. Pancras Underground Station has the largest number of lines in London and is also the busiest station on the London Underground. But it wasn't until the London city government decided to name subway stations after famous athletes in Olympic history two weeks ago that this important window in the city had no trace of the Olympics.

In the bustling Oxford Commercial Street in London, the new jerseys of Rooney and Messi seem to be more popular than the commemorative T-shirts with the words "I Love London" printed on them. It is said that there are only 10 Olympic souvenir stores in London. , but in Beijing, the number is more than 600. Is there really a lack of enthusiasm for the Olympics in London?

The first shopping mall in Europe was built in the original slum area

The "London Bowl", the Olympic Aquatics Center and the Olympic Village are located in the Stratford area of ??London's East End. The East End of London has always been regarded as a slum or even a dangerous area. Even local Londoners dare not set foot there easily. Most of the residents in the East District are poor people from coolie backgrounds and immigrants. I have been influenced by Mr. Conan Doyle and his Mr. Sherlock Holmes since I was a child. Before I came to the UK, the East End of London was in my mind the most dangerous place in the foggy city.

However, the changes in the East District today have been earth-shaking. Shopping malls, large supermarkets, cinemas, etc. specially built for the London Olympics have long been ready to go, and the commercial centers around the sports venues are thriving.

When Westfield, the largest and now Europe's largest shopping mall, opened last summer, the crowds of people even broke the glass of the mall. The shopping mall contains all kinds of large, medium and small brands, whether it is world-famous luxury goods or many affordable brands, as well as all kinds of leisure and entertainment, time-honored British restaurants and so on. In order to specifically cooperate with the Olympics, the shopping mall has even given a parking fee discount of up to 10 pounds a day, while in ordinary London shopping malls, parking for a day is at least more than 20 pounds. This shopping mall claims that in addition to British locals and tourists, its target consumers will also attract Olympic stars from various countries to patronize.

As former London Mayor Livingstone said, the Olympic Games will bring development, investment and rebirth to the dilapidated East End of London.

Father and son said they did not want the Olympics to prevent them from watching the Premier League

Stamford Bridge is the home ground of Chelsea Club in the Premier League. In the last round of Chelsea’s match against Wigan Athletic, a large number of Blues fans gathered here , entering the venue in an orderly manner. A father and son fan team were interviewed by us.

David is about 40 years old and a designer. His son Angus is about 10 years old and still in elementary school. Both father and son are die-hard Chelsea fans. When we mentioned the upcoming Olympic Games, the father replied seriously: "I think the Olympic Games are really too expensive. It requires cooperation from many parties and is too complicated, which will consume more resources." As an ordinary person, London citizens, do they really think the Olympics will bring inconvenience to their daily lives? David smiled and nodded, "Of course," he said, "Because of the Olympics, the Premier League next season will definitely be postponed. We still hope to watch the Premier League at a normal pace of life."

In the UK, football It is the undisputed number one sport. In London alone, there are five Premier League teams including Chelsea and Arsenal. Whenever there is a Premier League game, London is like a festival. This scene makes us wonder, on the day of the Olympic Games, will the scene be more spectacular than now?