Beijing’s Water Cube Reopens

By Joann Gonchar

Earlier this month, after almost a year of reconstruction, what is being touted as Asia’s largest water park opened inside the bubble-like ETFE walls of Beijing’s National Aquatics Center.

The building, commonly known as the Water Cube, was designed by Australian architecture firm PTW and China Construction Design International as the site of aquatics events during the 2008 Olympic Games. It still contains pools for recreational swimming and competition, but now it also houses a 140,000-square-foot leisure hall created by Toronto-based planning and design firm Forrec.

The park has cotton-candy-colored jellyfish suspended from the ceiling and attractions that include a wave pool, a 500-foot-long “lazy river,” a nearly vertical slide that guests enter via a launch capsule, and a 45-foot-wide funnel slide called “the tornado.” 

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