Guangzhou outspends London Olympics

The 2010 Asian Games (XVI Asiad) in Guangzhou

… The two-week-long competition triggered spending of 122 billion yuan ($18.3 billion) on projects including stadiums, roads and subway lines. That compares with the 9.3 billion-pound ($14.7 billion) budget set in March 2007 for the London Games.

Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, will host the Youth Olympic Games in 2014. …

Bloomberg

This 2001 purpose built structure is called the “Olympic Stadium“, as originally it was meant to be used for some events of the 2008 Olympics.

Capacity 80,012.

Guangzhou (Canton), China has a greater population of around 25 million.

There’s no recession there. Growth was 11.5% last fiscal year.

Guangdong justifies the amount of spent as mostly infrastructure. I partly buy that argument in light of the fantastic rate of growth.