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)
China believes that it is now well prepared for the Winter Games and can replicate the success of the 2008 Summer Games. The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games Bidding Committee not only concurs with the belief, but has in fact prepared three zones to host the Games.
The first one is the Yanqing Zone, located in the Xiaohaituo Mountain area where the National Alpine Ski Centre and the National Sliding Centre will be. These two areas will be specially built for the development of Olympic winter sports in China.
The zone will hold four venues: the National Sliding Centre for competition events, the Alpine Ski Resort, the Olympic Village and the Mountain Media Centre.
The second zone is the Beijing Zone, which will be the venue for all ice sports competitions. The venues are The National Speed Skating Oval, the Wukesong Sports Centre, the National Aquatics Centre, the Capital Indoor Stadium and the National Indoor Stadium.
The venues in the second zone are closest to the National Stadium, which will hold the opening and closing ceremonies.
Finally, the Zhangjiakou Zone, the third area, will include the Nordic Centre, the Biathlon Centre and the Genting Snow Park as three among five competition venues. This area will hold most of the snowboarding and skiing events.
A high-speed rail between Zhangjiakou and Beijing will be built to shorten the travel time between to two areas to 50 minutes.
Wang Zhijun, the deputy division chief at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games Bidding Committee, explained that the Olympics will be a good instrument for both economic and social improvement in addition to providing people with entertainment.
