IN THE heart of China’s capital a dragon is flexing its muscles. This is no mythical beast, but the very embodiment of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

It is still hard to make out the shape of the dragon that in just over two years will transform a city that has stood for a thousand years. Dozens of cranes puncture the skyline and on the ground gangs of yellow-hatted workmen swarm over dozens of building sites. With 844 days to go before the opening of the Beijing Olympics, construction of the sites is at full throttle.

When Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, and Lord Coe made a tour of inspection last week a worker did not pause from soldering one of the hundreds of huge hollow steel girders that will cradle the national stadium. The 91,000-seat stadium promises to be one of the most dramatic sports buildings on Earth.

Designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, it is known as the “bird’s nest” because of the trusses that will support each other and converge into interwoven steel twigs. The cost has been estimated at nearly $400 million (£230 million) — even after the Communist Party Politburo called for frugality and scrapped plans for a retractable roof.

Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, described the stadium as spectacular and a benchmark for the one to be constructed in Stratford by 2010. Mr Livingstone was no less impressed. He said: “What the Beijing authorities have sought to do is make each of their stadiums and the aquatic centre absolutely breathtaking, iconic buildings.”

The equally ambitious building that will house the pools has only its bare bones visible. When it is finished, a membrane will envelop the exterior to give the effect of water flowing down the walls.

Both buildings are due to be finished by the end of next year, as are nine other entirely new buildings. Of the 36 Olympic venues, 31 are in Beijing and of these, 11 are new, 11 are being renovated and nine will be temporary sites. The cost is estimated at $38 billion (£21.7 billion). Of that, about $2.4 billion will be spent on the Olympic venues alone and possibly as much as $40 billion will be spent on urban renewal and on infrastructure improvements.

That compares with the $16 billion expected to be spent on London’s infrastructure.

Such grand schemes may be achievable these days only by governments unencumbered by the views of voters. But there is little doubt that the Olympics will change the landscape of Beijing. Underground networks will connect the city and the Olympic Village that lies directly north of the Forbidden City — once home to China’s emperors — in the centre of Beijing.

Lord Foster of Thamesbank is designing a new airport that will be built in only four years and will dwarf all the terminals at Heathrow combined.

Beijing will renovate nearly 400 miles of sewage pipes and build 228 miles of roads — of which all but 40 miles are already complete. Indeed, so fast has the construction progressed that International Olympic Committee officials have been heard to voice anxieties that the facilities will be finished too early and could even begin to deteriorate before the Games open on August 8, 2008.

That date was not chosen by chance. The number eight is deeply auspicious in China, sounding like the word for “rich” in the southern Cantonese dialect. It is not the only nod to tradition. The entire Olympic site is in the shape of a dragon, and no ordinary dragon either, but an ancient beast whose body has existed for millennia, forming the axis of imperial Beijing from north to south in accordance with the beliefs of feng shui.

Olympic organisers brush aside anxieties that they are proceeding too fast. Wang Zhiyuan, chief economist of the Beijing 2008 construction office, said recently: “We thought we were ahead of schedule, but there have been some problems so we are now making steady progress on schedule.”

One report was that steel shortages were hampering work by the 17,000 workers at the Olympic sites. But Jun Yuan, the construction office chief, said that the 110,000 tonnes of steel required for the national stadium alone would be delivered on time.

He did admit to two problems. “We have adopted new technologies unprecedented in China and applying these is causing difficulties,” he said.

But for Beijing the Games are bringing a mini economic boom. The influx of capital is expected to create 1.8 million jobs and to add nearly one percentage point to economic growth. That may help to compensate the many families whose homes have been razed to make way or those whose jobs will move as polluting factories are moved out to try to ensure clean air over Beijing.

During the Games drivers in the city will be forced to leave their cars at home. Construction work on most of the 3,000 building sites in the city will cease and factories and power plants will close. Roads will be sprayed several times a day to dampen down particulate matter and planes and rockets will be used to seed clouds to try to induce rain.

A better manners campaign is also under way to fine those who spit in the street and to persuade commuters to queue. Nearly 2 million booklets on etiquette are being distributed. But it may be easier to redesign Beijing as a dragon than to change the habits of centuries.

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