Beijing's officials are looking forward to the hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics. (Photo : Reuters)
With the announcement of the host city for 2022 Winter Olympic Games barely two weeks away, Beijing is turning to ski experts in one final push to promote its bid to the public.
Wei Qinghua, a ski industry specialist with over 13 years' experience designing ski resorts in China, said that northwest China's Chongli County, the proposed Olympic venue for skiing and other winter sports, is very ideal for such events.
"Chongli is a special place, where cold wave [sic] from the Northwest and thaw from the Southeast merge in winter. We have lots of snow there. The average total snowfall is around 1 meter, and there is always at least 80 cm of snowfall," Wei told state-owned China Radio International. "It starts to snow in late September, and people have to get their padded jackets ready for use in October. The ski resorts are open to the public in November."
The natural weather conditions of Chongli also make it a suitable place to train and host international games than neighboring countries like Japan, said Wakatsuki Hitoshi, the director of Ski Association of Japan and the assistant general of the Department of Alpine Skiing.
"Japan does have heavy snowfall but the snow isn't suitable for professional training. It's too soft for the standard of the International Ski Federation (FIS)," he said. "We could only travel to America or Europe to practice in the past. But the conditions there aren't better than those in Chongli."
Aside from being a suitable condition for skiing, Chongli also has the advantage of having sufficient resources to produce the artificial snow needed to meet the Olympic standards for winter sporting events.
"According to the standard of the ISF (FIS), density of the snow used in Winter Olympics must reach 600. But the density of natural snow is far below 600, so the snowmaking system provides a strong support for Winter Olympic Games," said Mojca Ogris, vice president of snowmaking systems manufacturer Demaclenko. "Take the downhill as an example. We need more snow in other ski resorts because we need to consider the melting rate of snow. But this is not a problem for Beijing. Beijing has a cold and dry winter."
Beijing is in a joint bid with neighboring Zhangjiakou Province to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, competing against Almaty in Kazakhstan.
The International Olympic Commission (IOC) will announce the winning bid in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 31.
