China's capital expects to have spent US$37 billion (HK$289 billion) for the Games by 2008, at least US$2 billion of which will go to building venues that are already on or ahead of schedule.

Adapting those sports complexes for increasingly affluent Chinese looking for new places to play could help recoup the massive expenses.

``After the Games, the main part of the Water Cube will become an artificial wave beach, surrounded by lots of other water entertainment, exercise and training areas,'' Kang Wei, deputy general manager of Beijing Municipal State-Owned Asset Management Co, was quoted as saying.

With the artificial beach, an amusement park and a huge movie theater, the shimmering blue Water Cube, which will house the swimming competitions in 2008, could attract as many as 4,500 people a day, Kang said.

Olympic organizers in Beijing probably hope to avoid Athens' experience of looking at largely unused sports venues after hosting the Games.

Greece said in February it had only just begun post-Olympic planning for the 36 stadiums it had purpose-built at a cost of almost US$4 billion.

Beijing's Wukesong basketball stadium could be adapted to host large exhibitions and public activities, swimming, ice skating and other sports events, and US basketball games, Liu Zhongyi, the facility's general manager, was quoted as saying.

``We calculate we can recoup the total investment in 15 to 20 years,'' Liu said. But the plan for Beijing's National Stadium, dubbed the ``bird's nest'' because of its criss-crossing bands of steel, does not appear as clear.

The stadium, the site of the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field events in 2008, would later be run ``according to market economy standards,'' said chinanews.com.

REUTERS