Xinhua News Agency, Geneva, February 1st (reporter Shan Lei) on the occasion of the first anniversary of the successful holding of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee published an article on the first day to celebrate its official website headlines, titled “Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics: over the past year, Chinese people have become more and more fond of winter events and enjoy the benefits brought by the Winter Olympics in the social and economic fields.
The article said: “Beijing, as the first city to hold both the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games, presented a stunning winter Olympic games to the world last year. At the same time, it successfully attracted nearly 0.35 billion Chinese to participate in the ice and snow sports. The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics was held in the legendary stadium of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the Bird’s Nest, and all Chinese people were caught in a carnival.”
The article wrote that the goal of building China into a new ice and snow sports resort was actually achieved long before the start of the Winter Olympics. At the beginning of 2021, China had 654 standard ice rinks and 803 indoor and outdoor ski resorts. According to the forecast of China Tourism Research Institute, the number of winter tourists in China in 2020-2025 snow season will exceed 0.52 billion, with an estimated income of 720 billion yuan.
The vigorous development of winter sports brings about the promotion of Chinese society in many aspects. The article of the International Olympic Committee said: “health, leisure, social and economic fields all benefit with the development of winter sports, for example, for those who live around the Winter Olympics, the event created about 81000 job opportunities for them.”
Christopher Dolby, executive director of the Olympic Games department of the International Olympic Committee, said: “In addition to hosting a successful event, Beijing Winter Olympics has been committed to bringing opportunities to the social and economic levels, this is consistent with the purpose of the Olympic 2020+5 agenda. Over the past year, the biggest achievement of Beijing Winter Olympics is to let ordinary people discover the changes brought by winter sports to their lives. BOCOG also tries to minimize the impact of the event on the environment. Measures include giving priority to the use of existing venues, all venues using renewable energy, and applying new technologies such as carbon dioxide refrigeration system. All these make winter sports more sustainable.”
In terms of venue reuse after the Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee also praised China: “Over the past year, Chinese have visited, used and enjoyed the venues of the Beijing Winter Olympics.” For example, the article welcomed more than 3,000 tourists on the first day of the opening of the “Ice Cube” and won the title of “The Hottest Ice”; The “snow circle surfing” of Shougang skiing jumping platform attracted many tourists, truly transform this landmark building from a steel plant into a place that integrates sports and culture; Zhangjiakou Yunding Ski Park has organized about 30 activities in this snow season, it is one of the busiest Beijing Winter Olympics venues.
The article said: “Beijing spared no effort to increase the frequency of use of venues and encourage all-round and long-term use and upgrade of various facilities to achieve the purpose of expansion and quality improvement. The transformation of former factories, warehouses and commercial buildings into ice and snow athletic field was also recommended by the local government.”
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