Games promise to have lasting effect

Measures and venues for Winter Olympics to boost sports and bring blue skies

In seven years, Beijing will become the first city to have staged both the Summer and Winter Olympics. But what changes will Beijing 2022 bring to the host city and the surrounding areas?

For a start, the event will push Beijing, and even China, to further open up to the world.

For the bid, we asked international experts to help select competition zones and offer advice on venue construction, which complies with the ethos of integrating with global sports communities and is in line with the principles advocated by the International Olympic Committee.

Yet, more importantly, the Games have also been opened up domestically - to Chinese people, private companies and civil societies. The event is not simply the reserve of state-owned enterprises and government organizations. A diverse range of stakeholders will be able to participate. In a sense, organizing the Winter Olympics is a way of using sports to promote and deepen China's comprehensive reforms and stimulate private capital.

Venues used for the Winter Olympics will also be opened to the public after the event, just like the Water Cube, which was used for swimming and diving events during the 2008 Summer Games.

Ski resorts being constructed for the Games, mainly in Zhangjiakou, Beijing's bid partner, will make it possible for residents to enjoy winter sports year-round.

In Beijing, 11 of 12 venues to be used for the Games were also used in 2008. The only new venue will be a long-track course built near Olympic Forest Park. Alpine skiing, bobsled and luge events will be held in the city's mountainous Yanqing county.

As part of the construction work in the runup to the event, ski schools will be opened around the Olympic venues as well as a theme park for parents and their children to enjoy.

The philosophy of the 2022 Winter Olympics is athlete-centered, sustainable development, and cost-efficiency. This is also in line with the development philosophy of contemporary China, especially the concept of sustainable development, which is an important task for enterprises, the public, and above all, the Chinese government.

Hosting the Winter Games will also boost air pollution controls in Beijing and the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

In the coming seven years, if we advance the Beijing Clean Air Action Plan (2013-2017), we will achieve our blue-sky target earlier than the 2030 deadline it stipulates.

Quality air is crucial to people's lives, as well as the Winter Olympics, and Beijing authorities have pledged to the public and the IOC that they will put more effort into reducing air pollution.

What's more, as the central government has approved the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional coordinated development strategy, the first steps have been taken in regional collaboration in environment protection.

As part of the clean air plan, Beijing alone will invest $130 billion (115 billion euros) to rein in air pollution between 2013 and 2018.

Over the past two years, the city has reduced coal consumption by 30 percent, and more than 1 million high-emission motor vehicles have been removed from the roads.

PM2.5, tiny pollutant particles that can enter the bloodstream and cause health problems in humans, fell 10.2 percent between 2012 and 2014, and Beijing has said it will cut this by a further 40 percent by 2022.

To ensure a successful Winter Games, high-polluting industries have also been banned in Zhangjiakou and throughout Hebei province, which will improve the environment in the entire region.

The government is taking drastic measures to bring blue skies back to Beijing, and we are confident citizens will be able to live in a cleaner environment.

The author is director of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics Research Center. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/18/2015 page9)