Beijing Great Wheel Beijing Great Wheel The Beijing Great Wheel, () a tall giant Ferris wheel, was to have been constructed in eastern Beijing's Chaoyang Park, one of the 2008 Summer Olympics venues. If it had been built, it would have become the world's tallest Ferris wheel, superseding the Singapore Flyer (world's tallest 2008-2014). The Great Wheel Corporation originally forecast the wheel would start turning on August 1, 2008, one week in advance of the Beijing-hosted 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2007, Chinese state media reported that construction had begun, with completion delayed until 2009 due to design issues. Completion was subsequently rescheduled for
Ferris wheel riding the Great Wheel: Similar wheels also appeared in England in the 17th century, and subsequently elsewhere around the world, including India, Romania, and Siberia. A Frenchman, Antonio Manguino, introduced the idea to America in 1848, when he constructed a wooden pleasure wheel to attract visitors to his start-up fair in Walton Spring, Georgia. In 1892, William Somers installed three fifty-foot wooden wheels at Asbury Park, New Jersey; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Coney Island, New York. The following year he was granted the first U.S. patent for a "Roundabout". George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. rode on Somers' wheel in