We knew this even before the Olympics were over.

Beijing built far too many big and exotic venues. Stadiums and arenas anyone with the slightest knowledge of Chinese sports interest … knew would be useless as soon as the Summer Games circus struck the tents and left town.

Now, we have the Los Angeles Times with a story on how Beijing overbuilt for the Olympics, spending $43 billion in the process, and for life in general.

China is a country with no baseball, minimal basketball and a weak soccer league.

How Beijing was going to turn the Bird’s Nest, the massive track stadium, into a self-supporting venue was impossible to imagine. The Times story has all of one event scheduled in the Bird’s Nest in calendar 2009 — an opera performance on Aug. 8, anniversary of Opening Ceremonies. Geez. At the least, they could run a soccer team in there, couldn’t they?

And now the Times story has speculation that the Bird’s Nest will be turned into … a shopping mall.

If you were reading this blog, back in August,  we marveled over the eye-appeal of the Bird’s Nest but rued some really basic and perhaps unresolvable problems: A lack of natural lighting and severe overheating issues because of the semi-closed roof.

The baseball “stadiums” at least were modest structures, a couple of small grandstands with seating for about 500 — and then some temporary seats constructed down the lines. The fact that they will be torn down for, yes, another shopping mall … well, that makes sense and is no great loss in a nation that cares not a whit about ball.

The most compelling of all structures, the Water Cube, where Michael Phelps won all his gold, seemed as if it ought to be able to host … something.  Every swim and diving event in Asia, for instance.

Anyway, yes, when I was riding the buses to the various ultra-slick, ultra-nice venue, I wondered over and again, “And when this is over, they do … what? … with the bicycle-cross track?

But one-party states don’t have to answer to angry voters and taxpayers. They can spend $43 billion for a 16-day party and then just walk away from all those venues. And that is what Beijing, apparently, is doing.