Not only is Beijing's "Bird's Nest" aesthetically pleasing, the sports venue was also designed with high-tech internal gear designed to keep in line with the concept of a "Green Olympics."

Engineer Liu Peng explained that behind the "Bird's Nest" is a comprehensive world-class rainwater recycling system that operates on a 24-hour schedule which can collect rainwater from the National Stadium and its surrounding areas, purify it, and then recycle it for use in the venue.

The recycled water has many uses, including irrigating the approximately 80,000 square meters of green ground surrounding the "Bird's Nest," cleaning cars and roads, cooling air conditioners, etc.

The immense water recycling system measures out to about the size of 6 football fields. An average of 67 thousand cubic meters of water can be recycled through the system each year. A maximum of 12,000 cubic meters of water may be stored in the 6 containers located underground.

The system's blueprint came from Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Worldwide Partner GE. Three levels of filters, including sand filtration, "ultrafiltration" and sodium filtration are used to process and clean out the water, removing dirt and bacteria.

Jim Fisher, president of GE Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Solutions, expressed his company's feeling of honor at being able to be so deeply involved with the capital city's environmentally-friendly approaches to hosting the Olympics.