The Group matches start on 7th August. All 16 teams in the 4-team Groups will play 3 matches, all on the 7th, 10th, and 13th of August. Here are each venue’s first set of games (the venues below are listed from top to bottom, in correlation with the sets of photos on the map).
[Note: all population figures are for city-area, not the much larger municipality, or urban, area.]
Shenyang (China’s 10th largest city) is a sub-provincial city, and the capital of Laoning province, in northeast China, with a population of around 4.4 million (2007 estimate). On 7th August, Shenyang Olympic Stadium will host the Group C teams: Brazil v. Belgium (early match) and China v. New Zealand (late match).
Quinhuangdao (around China’s 78th largest city) is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, 190 miles east of Beijing, with a population of three-quarters of a million. Thursday the 7th of August, Quinhuangdao Olympic Stadium will host the Group D teams: Honduras v. Italy (early match) and South Korea v. Cameroon (late match).
Beijing is China’s capital, and the second largest city in the country, with a population of around 10.3 million. Both of the Beijing Stadiums will not host matches in the first 2 sets of games, and the National Stadium will only host the Mens Football Final, on Saturday, 23rd August.
Tianjin is the 7th largest city in China, with a population of 5.2 million. This northern coastal city is 120 miles southeast of Beijing, on the Bohai Gulf. On 7th August, Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium will host the Group B teams: Japan v. USA (early match) and Netherlands v. Nigeria (late match).
Shanghai is China’s largest city (and one of the top 10 largest cities in the world), with a population of around 16.2 million (20.6 million in the urban area). On 7th August, Shanghai Stadium will host the Group A teams: Australia v. Serbia (early match) and Cote d’Ivoire v. Argentina (late match).
Group Stage chapter, from Wikipedia’s page on this competition.: {Click here}.
List of largest urban areas in China, from Wikipedia: {Click here}.
Here is something interesting, from the official 2008 Summer Olympics site, which shows the Beijing National Sports Stadium (aka, “the Bird’s Nest“) being built, in time lapse-photography: {Click here, and scroll one-third down the page, to the box below where it says Focus}.
While searching for images, I came across this blog, called Off the Chang…here is an article about the Bird’s Nest stadium, and the larger issues surrounding the Beijing Olympic games: {click here}.
Thanks to the Football Temples of the World site {click here}.
