An ice sculpture promoting Beijing's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The Chinese capital is aiming to become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. (Photo : China Daily)
Beijing has addressed environmental issues that could hurt its chances of winning the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Since the Chinese Olympic Committee announced in Nov. 2013 that Beijing would bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2022, the media has been questioning if the air quality or the quantity of natural snow is good enough for the games.
City officials said last Tuesday that such issues need not be concerns, promising clean air and plenty of snow.
Shen Xue, Vancouver Olympic gold medalist and ambassador for the bid, said: "We will improve the air quality not only for the Games but also for the demand of our people." She added that "no matter whether we win the bid or not, we will take efforts to improve the air quality."
Beijing has converted its coal-fired heating system in urban areas to a natural gas system and closed heavily polluted plants to strengthen attempts to clean the city's air. Nearby places, including Tianjin City and provinces like Hebei, have also adopted similar measures.
Xu Jicheng, deputy director of Beijing 2022's press and communications department, said that "technically the pollution has been reduced and controlled, we have seven more years to go and it will be sunshine and white clouds."
Regarding the supposed lack of natural snow, Xu claims that the climate conditions in Zhangjiakou's Chongli County, where the different skiing events will be held should Beijing win the bid, will not be a concern.
"The last snow season in the Chongli resort, the snowfall is 70 centimeters, so that's enough for the Winter Olympic Games," said Xu. "Chongli is one of the earliest snowfall areas in East Asia. The snow started in late October, and the snow quality there is one of the best in the world."
Beijing's only rival for the 2022 bid is Almaty, Kazakhstan. Four European cities--Oslo, Stockholm, Krakow and Lviv--withdrew their bids earlier.
Between the two, Beijing's bid seems to be the favorite, with its only weakness being the distance of its proposed venues, with alpine skiing 50 miles from downtown Beijing and other events 135 miles away in Zhangjiakou. Almaty plans to have all events within a 20-mile radius.
During the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, there were complaints that two venues were 30 miles apart.
On Friday, the International Olympic Committee will gather in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to announce the winner.
Whichever city wins, the next three Olympic Games after the 2016 Rio Summer Games will be in Asia, with the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan.
If Beijing does win the bid, it will be the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, after it hosted the former in 2008.
