2008 Olympics
Table Tennis Venue

The People's Republic of China will host the Olympic Games in Beijing from the 8 to 24 August 2008.

The Olympic table tennis competition starts on Wednesday 13 August 2008, and with the home nation expected to take several gold medals, there's sure to be a fantastic atmosphere.

A fabulous new state-of-the-art venue, 8km from the Olympic Village, has been built at Peking University specifically for this event - so the players will have the best possible conditions in which to play.

It has seating for 8,000 spectators - with 6,000 seats being permanent and 2,000 temporary.

Playing area

The playing area is situated at the centre of the Peking University Gymnasium. It will hold eight tables, enclosed by playing area surrounds, with each court measuring 16m x 8m.

During the first 2 days of the team competitions, the contests will be played on 8 tables at the same time. In the remaining days the number of tables used at the same time will change from four to two and one respectively.

Warm-up Area

There will be a warm-up area with sixteen courts, each of them measuring 14m x 7m, in the basement of the competition venue.

Air Conditioning

The Peking University Gymnasium is the world's first sports venue designed and built for table tennis competitions. Table tennis players require an environment with few distractions and therefore air conditioning is very important.

The venue addresses this requirement with an air conditioning system that releases air no faster than 0.2 m/sec.

The spectator seats have air replacement vents installed underneath, thus lessening the reliance on air conditioning.

The gymnasium's double-layer metal surface is waterproof and heat insulating. It also eliminates noise from rainfall, and the walls also absorb sounds.

Here's a video showing the Olympics table tennis venue ...
courtesy of china daily