Ian O'Riordan On Athletics: Of the many features of Beijing - 20 million people, three million cars, six million bicycles - the one that caught me by surprise after a week exploring the various sites for next year's Olympics was the absence of a single runner.

With the great event just over the horizon, it seems the last thing anyone in Beijing is bothered with is running, competitive or otherwise.

It's understandable that, in a city roughly the size of Munster, there are better ways of getting around, and perhaps in the more open spaces out beyond the suburbs there are those who view running as a justifiable activity. But there is a distinctly unhurried feel to Beijing, even around the 31 Olympic venues, which by now are at or near completion.

Here, vast armies of workers put the finishing touches to stadium exteriors and their surroundings, mostly by laying concrete and blocks individually. It wouldn't be a complete exaggeration to refer to Beijing as the "hand-built Olympics". With China's population a hefty 1.9 billion and growing there is effectively an unlimited workforce.

The only site I actually tested out was a short stretch of the marathon route; in other words, the mile-or-so run from my hotel straight to Tiananmen Square. It was along here, and nowhere else, that people stared at me in wonder, not in an impolite way, more in a "what-is-he-doing?" way. Most things have caught on in China, but running is not one of them.

The purpose of the run, as well as maintaining fitness for next month's Reggae Marathon, was to test Beijing's air quality, and the report is not good. This being November, there was the inevitable mix of fog and smoke, but judging by the black stuff that formed in my throat, it was mostly smoke.

Beijing is making a big deal about its "Green Olympics", and so it should. It has various plans to improve the air quality come next August, including temporary closure of its 20 steel factories and temporary grounding of 1.3 million cars. The biggest problem is the Gobi desert, a mere 200 miles to the north, which constantly blows down an unhealthy mix of particulate matter. The reality is, no matter what the organisers do, Beijing next August will be hot and sticky and just like a Dublin pub in the rare ould times.

All this considered, there is really only one place to run at next year's Olympics: inside the National Stadium. Nothing can prepare you for a first sighting of this vast structure, dubbed "The Bird's Nest" for obvious reasons. The interlaced design of its great steel exterior (42,000 tons) is impressive enough, and so too is the 91,000-seat interior. And with a span of 343 metres it is easily the biggest stadium in the world.

As with the rest of the Olympics, cost was not an issue, even if that's not strictly true. The Bird's Nest was built under a public-private partnership, investors taking over the running of the stadium for 30 years after the Olympics, to make money out of it, after which it is to be handed back to the Chinese government.

Clearly this stadium will be at its most impressive at next year's opening ceremony and subsequent track and field events, and if Irish athletes needed any extra incentive to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, this should be it. Looking at London's plans for 2012, it's obvious there may never be another opportunity to run inside an Olympic stadium quite like the Bird's Nest. It's a one-off.

During this week's visit, Ireland's chef de mission for Beijing, Dermot Henihan, gave a presentation on our current Olympic qualifiers, listing the 12 in athletics and 13 from other sports - none of whom he ranked as potential medallists. With a bit of luck, he said, the team should grow to 35 or possibly more, but will still be well short of the 50 who qualified for Athens 2004.

This was picked up like a leak of the scandalous sort by RTÉ's Morning Ireland. Surely we have one potential medallist? It's a little late to start worrying about that. The World Athletics championships in Osaka last August made it quite clear how difficult winning medals in Beijing will be. But every effort should be made to get as many Irish athletes to Beijing as possible. There won't be another Olympics like Beijing, at least not until the Chinese get to host them for a second time, which despite their apparent apathy towards running they no doubt will.