$14.7M Shows Off BC in Beijing

British Columbia is spending nearly $15M to show off at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Orca Creative Group was hired to transform the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall into a little piece of BC and Canada away from home. The same group also designed the exhibit.

The pavilion will open next Saturday, April 26th, 2008 for a soft launch and will be officially opened by British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and David Emerson, the federal Olympics minister on May 22.

The Turino log cabin saw 100,000 visitors through it's ornately carved doors during and after the 2006 Winter Olympics. This new iteration of the British Columbia Pavilion is bigger and flashier, a token to it's new locale, and is merely a stone's throw away from Tienanmen Square in the heart of Beijing.

[Photo by A tea but no e]

13 steel rings covered in BC made waste-wood product Silva Panel frame the entrance to the building. Once inside a 4.5 tonne jade centrepiece called The Emperor's Sunrise carved by Vancouver's George Pratt and Syd Belzberg. The gem-quality stone was mined from Dease Lake.

The traditional Chinese elements of metal, wood, water, earth, and fire will guide the exhibit.

A 225 year old "Spirit Tree" will be a centrepiece, as in Turin, this one used to grace Prospect Point in Stanley Park before being blown down in 2006.

More from Jeff Lee.