Capital Indoor Stadium

The Capital Indoor Stadium at the Baishi Bridge in Beijing's Haidian district opened in 1968 as a multipurpose arena seating around 18,000. It became famous through the 1971 Ping-Pong Diplomacy match where the US team faced Chinese players, triggering the thaw between Mao and Nixon. For the 2008 Olympics the hall was extensively modernised and hosted the volleyball events; for Beijing 2022 it staged figure skating and short track. Today visitors catch concerts, ice hockey games of KHL side Kunlun Red Star and boxing galas inside a venue where post-war concrete architecture meets a retrofitted glass facade.