The National Stadium lies in the Olympic Green area, which contains 10 sporting venues.

Beijing will have 37 Olympic venues in total, costing the princely sum of about �17bn.

All promise to be state-of-the art but some reports have suggested that the construction of new facilities and the re-construction of old ones have been the product of cheap labour.

Some of the estimated 30,000 workers are reported to be earning just �2 a day.