(BEIJING, December 24) -- A model of the first truss structure of the National Stadium will hit the flagship store for Olympic licensed products on Wangfujing Street in downtown Beijing Wednesday.

The steel licensed product is a 1:100 scale model of the truss structure of the stadium, also known as the "Bird's Nest," according to information from a launching ceremony on Monday for the fourth anniversary of groundbreaking for the main stadium of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The material of the model piece comes purely from residual steel from the stadium and was cast through precise founding technologies. Licensed by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), the article is issued with a limited circulation of 5,000 pieces.

Tang Yonghong (R), chief of the licensed product division of BOCOG Marketing Department, and Zhang Hengli, vice-general manager of the National Stadium Co. Ltd jointly unveil the product.

Listed as one of the "ten best architectural marvels" by Time Magazine, the National Stadium was co-designed by Swiss company Herzog & de Meuron and China Architecture Design Institute. It looks like a cradle, or a bird's nest with interlocking branches and twigs, because of its grid formation.

The exterior of the National Stadium is formed by 24 portal truss frames, and the miniature licensed product is prototyped from the stadium's first truss structure, or its pile foundation, said Zhang Hengli, vice-general manager of the National Stadium Co. Ltd, who joined Tang Yonghong, a BOCOG official, in unveiling the product.

 

An attendant of the launching ceremony