For the 2008 Summer Olympics, a total of thirty-seven venues were used, thirty-one in Beijing, and six outside Beijing.
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games were held in Beijing, China from 8 to 24 August 2008.[n 1] A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 NOCs (countries) participated in 302 events in 28 sports held in 37 competition venues. Events took place at eleven pre-existing venues, twelve new venues constructed for the Olympics, and eight temporary venues that were removed following the games. In addition, six venues outside Beijing hosted events, two of which were newly built for the Olympics.
Beijing won its bid to host the 2008 Olympics on 13 July 2001. The first new venues to begin construction were the Beijing National Stadium, Beijing National Aquatics Center, Beijing Shooting Range Hall, and the Laoshan Velodrome, where major work commenced in December 2003. By May 2007, construction had begun at all of the Beijing venues for the games. Approximately RMB¥13 billion (US$1.9 billion) was spent to build and renovate the venues.
Several of the venues were located at the Olympic Green Olympic Park. The largest venue at the games in terms of seating capacity was the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, which could at the time hold 91,000 spectators and was the site for the opening and closing ceremonies. The smallest venue in terms of seating capacity was the temporary Laoshan Mountain Bike Course, which had seating for 2,000 spectators.