With the 2008 Olympic Games 591 days away, the National Aquatics Center had its last of more than 3700 cushions sealed into its outer bubbles layer.

Worker standing on the roof of the Aquatics Center prepare to install the last cushion. [BOCOG]

Being the world's largest ETFE-clad structure, the Water Cube has 6,000 permanent seats and is able to host 11,000 spectators or more during big events.

The budget for the Water Cube is a bit more than one billion yuan. Among them, organizing committee is paying RMB 100 million for resident's relocation and the venue's design fee, with the rest of the money coming from donations.

Olympic water events including swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo will be held here in 2008, but the first international competition to be staged here is the F¨¦d¨¦ration Internationale de Natation (FINA) China Open on February 1, 2008.

Only Venue for Donations

The Water Cube is the only Olympic venue open to receive donations from overseas Chinese and funds raised may surpass construction costs, according to recent media reports.

Hong Kong billionaires, among other donators from Taiwan and abroad, top the list in terms of figures. Henry Fok Ying-tung and an anonymous donator from the Special Administration Region, were said to have contributed 200,000 million HK dollars each.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's number one and third wealthiest people Lee Ka-Shing and Lee Shau-Kee each donated 100,000 million HK dollars.

The biggest foreign donation was from Indonesia's Huang Zhiyuan, who donated RMB 100,000 yuan.