In just 10 painted characters, the slogan written across a construction site hoarding in Beijing’s Xicheng district sums up how the city has responded to the challenge of hosting the world’s greatest sportsfest. “Greet the new Olympics; build a new Xicheng,” it says.

The promise to build a new district is no mere bureaucratic bravado. In recent years, Xicheng, like all Beijing’s urban areas, has been the scene of an extraordinary orgy of construction. Hundreds of gleaming new government offices, corporate towers and residential compounds have transformed the skyline of a once mainly low-rise city. New highways have been built, underground train lines dug, the world’s biggest airport terminal opened and even entire halls in the fabled Forbidden City rebuilt. An estimated $40bn has been spent on Olympics-related infrastructure. As city leaders put it in their first stab at a municipal Olympic motto: “New Beijing, New Olympics”.