Atheist China is now the site of a very secular form of pilgrimage. Architects from around the world are thronging to Beijing to marvel – and occasionally snipe – at the epic new buildings springing up across the capital.

Some of these are related to the Olympics: the Water Cube swimming centre, whose blue, bubbled walls glow in the dark; and the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest because of its interlocking steel girders.