Getty Images
Shanghai
Shanghai Stadium, also known as “80,000 people’s stadium” because of its huge capacity, will be home to soccer matches for the Games. The stadium, built in 1997 for China’s eighth quadrennial National Games, serves as concert venue when it’s not hosting sporting events. For this summer’s Games, the action will kick off with the Aug. 7 match between the Australian and Serbian men’s teams. All together, there will be 12 matches in the city. While in Shanghai, the Olympic footballers and their fans can take a stroll on the historic colonial waterfront Bund, visit the futuresque skyscrapers across the river in Pudong, Shanghai’s answer to Wall Street, ride at 268 miles per hour on the mag-lev train, and take in sights such as the 789-year-old Confucian temple in the ancient city or the Chinese Sex Culture Museum.
