July 7 (China Youth Daily) The International Olympic Committee (IOC) declared Beijing (China), Oslo (Norway) and Almaty (Kazakhstan) as candidate cities for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing’s bid is made jointly with Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province. The photo below shows tourists are skiing at Wanlong Ski Resort in Zhangjiakou’s Chongli County. If Beijing wins the bid, Wanlong Ski Resort will be the venue for some ski competitions of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

On July 7, Beijing was shortlisted as the candidate city to host the 24th edition of Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2022. Later on the same day, Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games Bid Committee came up with the principles of hosting the games—thrift and retrenchment on a press conference.

On November 3, 2013, the Chinese Olympic Committee sent an official letter to the ICO to nominate Beijing to bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, in which Beijing will undertake some ice sports and Beijing’s Yanqing County and Zhangjiakou’s Chongli County for snow events. Along with two competitors Oslo and Almaty, the three candidate cities will submit their Candidture File in January 2015. The election of the Host City of the 2022 Games will take place on July 31 2015 at the 127th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

According to the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games Bid Committee, if Beijing wins the bid, the host of the 2022 Games would drive 300 million young people in and around North China to take part in winter sports, generalize the Olympic education among 400 million teenagers in China to encourage and influence a new Chinese generation. Besides, preparing and hosting the Winter Olympics will help boost economic co-development of Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, improve infrastructure in and around host city. Furthermore, the action will effectively enhance the control of air pollution in and around Beijing.

The bid committee emphasized economical competitions by using existing venues especially those ones for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Only a speed skating arena needs to be built in urban Beijing, and facilities necessary to alpine skiing in Yanqing County.

At the press conference, Hou Liang, Mayor of Zhangjiakou City, stated that Zhangjiakou boasts good natural conditions for snow competitions, such as more than 150 days suitable for skiing in a year, average winter temperature at -12 degrees Celsius, mountains mostly at a gradient of 5–35 degrees. In addition, Zhangjiakou has a skiing history for decades, and has established 82 primary, intermediate and advanced ski trails in total 69 kilometres, annually attracting over three million skiers for recent years.

Besides, Beijing–Zhangjiakou express railway project was technically assessed and approved in 2013; its construction expects to be started by the end of 2014 and plans to be completed and opened to the public around 2017. At the time, it only takes 20 minutes to drive to Yanqing competition site and within an hour to Chongli from urban Beijing.