Visitors could view the National Stadium, also called the Bird's Nest, from a 45-m-high mobile Ferris wheel - Asia's tallest - from Saturday.

The Ferris wheel belongs to a carnival theme park located next to the stadium, which will be open to the public from this Saturday until the end of October.

The Ferris wheel was already spinning when the park opened to "internal personnel" on Friday.

"It's such a great idea to have a theme park here," 28-year-old Li Shanshan said after getting off one of the rides. "What a bonus to Bird's Nest visitors like me!"

The 46,000-sq-m theme park was slated to open to the public during Spring Festival in February, but the date was postponed because some equipment failed to meet the Beijing Olympic Green Administration Committee's exceptionally strict safety requirements.

"All of our equipment has been checked and tested by the Beijing bureau of quality and technical supervision according to Olympic, rather than national, safety standards," site manager Liu Jian told China Daily.

"So it took longer than expected to certify that everything was 100-percent safe.

"I am confident the park will attract not only Bird's Nest visitors but also local people, because it's the first of its kind in the Chaoyang district."

When asked about the park's relatively quiet marketing campaign, Liu said the Bird's Nest in itself provides the "best promotion".

"We finally gave the theme park the green light to operate after they obtained all of the safety and security permits we required on Thursday," Ding Jun, head of the Beijing Olympic Green Administration Committee's activity management division, said.

Not everybody was pleased about the theme park's opening, including residents living across the street who voiced concerns about noise.

"Actually, I was woken up by the sound of the roller coaster this morning," Shi Hongxia, a Huizhongli resident in her 50s, said on Friday.

"I can't imagine what it will be like when the park officially opens."

The site manager said the park had done its best to minimize noise. It moved all facilities with loud speakers away from the street.

Ding said the Beijing municipal environmental protection bureau will monitor the noise, and the Beijing Global Carnival Company, which runs the theme park, might have to compensate residents if it exceeds legal levels.

(China Daily March 28, 2009)