Beijing and Zhangjiakou Vies To Host 2022 Winter Olympic Games

[beijingwalker]

Beijing and Zhangjiakou Vies To Host 2022 Winter Olympic Games

BY Michelle FlorCruz | December 26 2012 3:18 PM

After garnering international praise for producing the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, China's government is working toward having Beijing and nearby cold-weather tourist destination Zhangjiakou jointly bid to co-host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Zheng Lirong, vice mayor of Zhangjiakou, a city in Zhangbei county of Hebei province, confirmed the plans to try to host the quadrennial winter extravaganza, according to Sina News.

Zhanjiakou lies about 124 miles northwest of Beijing, a distance that would allow spectators to enjoy Zhangjiakou's natural winter climate and geography as well as Beijing's state-of-the-art venue infrastructure as well as experience in hosting games.

Though Zhangjiakou is not currently one of China's big-name cities, the area's increasing tourist numbers show the potential to become one of China's tourist capitals and could be suitable to host the international sporting event come 2022, supporters say. From January of this year to November, Zhangjiakou, affectionately dubbed the "Four Seasons tourism treasure" for its yearlong attractions, had 19.16 million tourists, making it the most visited city in Hebei province. Year-to-date, those tourists spent 11.5 billion yuan ($1.8 billion).

Although Hebei province includes the nation's capital, which played host to the 2008 Summer Games, the province stretches north to Zhangbei county, the northernmost part of which is near the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, the Batou hills and mountains.

In a test run for how winter sports would fare in the area, the second Zhangbei Snow Cultural Tourism Festival opened last week, and is running smoothly.

This is not the first time China has vied to host a Winter Olympics. The city of Harbin, known for its annual ice sculpture festivals and frigid weather, seemed like a good candidate for the 2018 Winter Games until China's General Administration of Sport (GAS) declined to allow the city to continue with its bid. At the time the GAS did not think Harbin had a good chance of winning the bid, and did not want to have another failed bid after losing the 2010 Games.

The two-city bid will likely have the support of GAS this time around, but being selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will still require a lot of lobbying. The IOC is guided by a principle of geographical rotation, and because the 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the chances that the 2022 Games will be held at another Asian nation are slim.

Enthusiasm and patriotism in China was at an all-time high leading up to and during the 2008 Summer Games, so winning the 2022 Winter Games bid would boost the morale of China's increasingly divided population.

 

[Korean]

It seems that Chinese Olympic organizers forgot that PyeongChang is hosting the 2018 Olympic games. Tokyo 2020 is doomed because of that.

There is no Winter Olympic game slot available to East Asia until 2030 at the earliest.

 

[beijingwalker]

China is kind of required by the IOC to host this game,they raised the issue many times to COC,but winter Olympics is not a big event and costs a lot of money,it's not really worth it business wise,so I guess the government is just going through the motion of doing it to satisfy IOC,Beijing rarely snows in winter and is not a proper venu to have the winter Olympics,it's only a half hearted bid at most.

 

[Korean]

China is kind of required by the IOC to host this game,they raised the issue many times to COC,but winter Olympics is not a big event and costs a lot of money,it's not really worth it business wise,so I guess the government is just going through the motion of doing it to satisfy IOC,Beijing rarely snows in winter and is not a proper venu to have the winter Olympics,it's only a half hearted bid at most.

Probably some kind of a scam, because the Chinese Olympic Committee is pouring hundreds of millions on a bid that has 0% chance of a win.

 

[PITA]

China is kind of required by the IOC to host this game,they raised the issue many times to COC,but winter Olympics is not a big event and costs a lot of money,it's not really worth it business wise,so I guess the government is just going through the motion of doing it to satisfy IOC,Beijing rarely snows in winter and is not a proper venu to have the winter Olympics,it's only a half hearted bid at most.

Agreed, but it would be nice to see the Olympics in China again. It was something quite special to see.

 

[Korean]

Agreed, but it would be nice to see the Olympics in China again. It was something quite special to see.

Not possible until 2030 at the earliest.