In its ecstatic pre-Olympic frenzy, China dropped more than USD 40 billion to remake Beijing, constructing 15 venues and renovating (or redecorating) 14 others. Faster than you can say “280 billion renminbi,” many of those structures came tumbling down (baseball diamonds at Wukesong), went reverting back (the triathlon venue at Ming Tomb Reservoir), were remodeled (Olympic Sports Center Stadium) or re-imagined (Water Cube). Here are the venues that are still open to the public.

For those who want to relive Olympic memories or just visualize how it all went down, these monumental structures hold a special ability to awe, surprise or excite. That, after all, is the least that USD 40,000,000,000 can buy.

A year ago, they won glory for China. So what are these gold medalists doing now?

何雯娜 He Wenna, 20 – Trampoline
Women’s Trampoline

This bouncy star has been inundated with sponsorship offers because of her gold medal and, more importantly, her looks. She has shied away from the entertainment business but she is said to have earned RMB 20 million from endorsements in 2008. Currently training for next year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, her next goal is to marry a “talented gentleman” by 21 and have a baby as soon as possible. She added that she wants to “leave the kid to her parents to look after so she can go out to have fun.”

Chinese Olympic diving star, Guo Jingjing, and her national teammates have spent their free time modelling. According to leaked photos they have been used to advertise goods for an as yet unnamed electronics company. The star of the Beijing Olympics is a world-class diver but we'll let you decide where on the podium she ranks for making you want to buy electrical goods.

More diving news, and there's no such thing as enough diving news, regards Fu Mingxia. The leaping legend is "suspected to be pregnant" for the fourth time following the release of papparrazzi shots from Hong Kong. Fu already has three children so a fourth will match her haul of Olympic golds.

According to the Beijing Times, Nike has agreed a deal which will see the sportswear giants plough USD 15 million into the Chinese Super League for the 2009 season. Twelve league teams will each get USD 732, 000 in equipment and a USD 220, 000 in cash. The remainder goes to the league. A 15% increase per year will eventually supply apparel to all 16 teams and would lead to a USD 30 million investment for the 2018 season. Holy cash cow!

The biggest story of the week regards everyone’s favorite football club, our very own Bejing Guo'an. Not content with appearing in the match that led to Wuhan Guanggu quitting the league entirely, or with inflaming Shangai Shenhua fans so much that they torched a Guoan mascot, last week Beijing’s finest excelled even themselves. How? By getting involved in what has variously been described as a “brawl” and “handbag waving” the majority deciding that the fracas was toward the tote-carrying end of the violence spectrum. That’s right, a wee bit of pushing and shoving with Tianjin Teda was all it took for domestic television’s powers-that-be to decide that there will be no more Chinese Super League broadcasts.