Beijing National Indoor Stadium

At first glance, the National Indoor Stadium seems to float beside the Bird’s Nest in Beijing’s Olympic Park. Its roof sweeps in a series of waves, a form inspired by a traditional Chinese folding fan. The venue’s later nickname, Ice Fan, links that outline to its role in Beijing’s winter-sports story. It is a useful distinction for visitors: this is an indoor arena, not the open-air National Stadium next door, and the two have separate entrances, programs and tickets.

The National Indoor Stadium sits in the southern part of the Olympic Park’s central zone. Beijing’s official tourism profile describes a main hall with 18,000 permanent seats and a maximum audience of 20,000, as well as additional spaces for performances, smaller cultural events and visitor services. The design’s north–south roofline gives the building a lighter appearance than its large capacity suggests. From outside, the fan-like silhouette is easiest to read from different sides of the park rather than from a single frontal view.

Built for the Summer Games

The arena was completed in November 2007, early enough to host test events before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. During the Summer Games, it hosted artistic gymnastics, trampoline and wheelchair basketball. The program showed how a large indoor venue could serve different sports by changing its floor, equipment and seating arrangements. After the Games, the building remained in use for sports competitions, public fitness and cultural or entertainment events rather than being preserved as a closed Olympic relic.

In 2021, the venue adopted the nickname Bingzhifan, usually translated as Ice Fan. The name was chosen through a public process and refers both to the folding-fan inspiration behind the architecture and to the stadium’s new winter-sports identity. A major conversion prepared the complex for ice hockey at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. It hosted men’s games and some women’s events; during the Paralympic Winter Games, the stadium was used for para ice hockey. The conversion made the building part of the wider effort to reuse facilities from the 2008 Summer Games.

From competition hall to working venue

The Olympic connection is still visible, but the stadium is not only a commemorative site. Its event spaces support professional sport, live entertainment and smaller gatherings. The municipal tourism profile describes several operating areas, including the main arena, an auxiliary hall for circus and other performances, and rooms for more intimate cultural or business events. These uses help explain why opening hours, access routes and ticket availability can be different on an event day.

Accessibility is another part of the venue’s post-Olympic story. Beijing’s tourism information describes independent seating for visitors with disabilities, access by gentle ramps and dedicated lifts to wheelchair seating. During the 2022 Paralympic Games, venue operators also made detailed changes to support athletes and spectators with disabilities. As with any large arena, the actual route available to a visitor depends on which section is open for a particular event or public visit, so check ahead if step-free access is essential.

How to plan a visit

Unlike the Bird’s Nest, the indoor stadium is primarily an event venue; an outdoor view does not guarantee that the interior is open for casual sightseeing. As checked on 3 October 2026, Beijing’s official tourism listing displays visitor hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and an admission price of 20 yuan, but event schedules and online directory information can change. Treat those details as a published reference, not a promise for a specific date. Confirm with the venue or current official ticket channel before making the trip; the tourism listing gives the contact number 010-84371900.

Before leaving, check the exact venue name on your ticket. “National Stadium” usually refers to the Bird’s Nest, while “National Indoor Stadium” is the Ice Fan. Large competitions and concerts may close sections, change entry points or require event tickets rather than a general visit ticket. If you are combining venues in the Olympic Park, leave enough time for security and walking between buildings; the park is a district-scale complex, not a single attraction with one shared entrance.

The strongest reason to pause at the Ice Fan is the way it reveals Beijing’s Olympic afterlife. The building began as a summer arena, became an ice-sports venue, and continues to adapt to a calendar of public events. Its roof is a graceful architectural signature, but its deeper story is functional: an Olympic structure designed to change with the city’s needs. Seen beside the Bird’s Nest, it completes a portrait of the park as a group of working venues rather than a frozen exhibition of the past.