The 91,000 capacity stadium for this year's Olympic Games in Beijing opened its doors to the media on Wednesday.

The venue's design was one submitted by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, with the 70 metre high structure encased in twisted steel.

It has been nicknamed the Bird's Nest by locals and took 52 months to build.

The project cost 3.5 billion yuan (�250m) to complete and paying customers will be admitted for the first time on Friday.

COMMENT It looks like a giant pile of grey spaghetti, ready and waiting just in case Gulliver decides to drop by for lunch BBC Beijing correspondent James Reynolds

"In a way it is a very random pattern that is similar to some Chinese artworks like bowls with cracked patterns and ancient pottery that you would see in a museum," said Michael Kwok of stadium engineers Arup China.

"It portrays a very strong image to the world of what China wants to portray - a modern, strong nation with the determination to succeed in this event."

The construction of the stadium did run into trouble seven months after work started in December 2003.

There was criticism over the spiralling cost so the retractable roof, 9,000 seats, 12,000 tons of steel and 400 million yuan were cut.