Tianhe Stadium

Tianhe Stadium in Guangzhou began in nineteen eighty-three as abandoned airport land on the city's edge, when officials committed an enormous sum to raise a stadium, gymnasium and swimming hall together in time for China's nineteen eighty-seven National Games. The guide follows the frantic three-year build through Guangzhou's wet heat, the saddle-shaped roof and banked concrete bowl that crews poured, and the construction honors the project earned once the doors opened on schedule. It also picks up the stadium's early nineteen nineties turn hosting international football, when its capacity was tested in ways nobody had planned for.