Anyone who is familiar with Olympic Games would be familiar with the Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium. However, not many people know that a mini Bird's Nest Stadium was built in Suzhou before the official permission was granted by China top leadership to proceed with the Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium.
According to the itinerary, we were supposed to be taken to this mini Bird's Nest Stadium when we were in Suzhou on 21 September 2014. Unfortunately, this was not the intention of the tour guide as we discovered later. He just casually mentioned when our bus was on the way for dinner that we had just drove passed the Stadium. Hardly anyone noticed it by the time we turned to have a glimpse of it.
After the dinner, we insisted that we be taken to have a look at this structure. He relented and had the bus driven to the front of this stadium. With the little time allowed, we could only take photos from a distance.
This is the problem with the so-called sight seeing tours in China nowadays. The tour operators working in cohort with big manufacturing/marketing companies are only interested in promoting sales to boost their commissions. This "unethical practice" has caused tremendous resentment among foreign tourists!
At night, the bird's nest feature was not very noticeable. The non-stop changing of the LED lights are probably what draw the visitors.
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