An old steel-making center in Beijing is getting new life as a place for shopping, eating and working. Now, it is also being shown on televisions during this year’s Winter Olympics. The center has large cooling towers and smokestacks, which are big industrial structures for dealing with pollution and heat. This month, however, they are being seen with the Olympic ski jumping competition known as “Big Air.” In the competition, the skiers slide down a 64-meter high, 164-meter-long ramp to gain speed before they jump into the air and do tricks. As they rise, television cameras show them with the factory in the background. Some people watching used social media to say the images made them wonder if the Olympics were being held in Springfield, the home of the Simpsons family. In the cartoon, Homer Simpson worked at a nuclear power center. China closed the Shougang steel factory before the 2008 Summer Olympics to reduce air pollution. Since then, the factory has been turned into a place where people work, eat and walk on grassy areas. The old parts of the factory are still there. But many of the spaces have been turned into offices. Alex Hall is an American freestyle skier. He said: “The crazy smokestack things in the back are pretty cool.”
