The 24th Beijing Winter Olympic Games will be held on February 4, 2022. The footsteps of the Winter Olympics are getting closer and closer to us. It is less than a year since the start of the competition. All competition venues for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games have been completed by the end of 2020. At present, the preparations for the Winter Olympics have entered the test-ready stage and will enter the on-time operation stage in October this year. The whole preparation work has entered the sprint stage.
The venue of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games is divided into 3 competition areas (Beijing, Yanqing, Zhangjiakou), a total of 8 venues in Beijing City（6 are in the Beijing Cluster, 2 are in the Yanqing Cluster. In this article we will take you to explore the 8 venues in Yanqing and Beijing.
Beijing Cluster (6 Venues)
1.National Speed Skating Oval 国家速滑馆
The National Speed Skating Hall is a new ice competition venue for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Construction began in 2016, and as one of the venues of the 2022 Winter Olympics in China, it will undertake the 2022 short track speed skating competition.
The competition will be open to Beijing residents, providing training venues for athletes and meeting the needs of Beijing residents for winter sports in the future. The National Speed Skating Hall will host the speed skating competition at the Winter Olympics, producing 14 gold medals. The National Speed Skating Oval is also known as the "Ice Ribbon (冰丝带)" because it is surrounded by 22 crystal "ribbon" shaped curved glass walls, like a speed skater's high-speed track.
2.National Indoor Stadium 国家体育馆
The National Stadium is located in the Olympic central area and will host ice hockey at the Winter Games.In order to better serve the Winter Olympics, the National Stadium started renovation projects at the end of 2018, including adding ice-making functions and a dehumidification system to the main stadium, and building a new ice arena as a training center. The training hall adopts the same design standard as the competition ice rink and is used for athletes' training during competition. According to the requirements of the competition, 14 new locker rooms were added, which were built in an assembly-type form and 95% of them could be recycled after the competition.
3.Capital Indoor Stadium 首都体育馆
The capital Stadium will be responsible for organizing and training figure skating and short track speed skating competitions at the Winter Olympics, producing 14 gold medals.
In preparation for the Winter Olympics, the Capital Stadium has been renovated on the basis of maintaining its original appearance, incorporating green, energy saving, environmental protection and comfort elements with the help of science and technology. The appearance of the pavilion is "restored as old", continuing the classic. Create "the most beautiful ice" with the latest sound and photoelectric technology. Using advanced carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling to make ice, the temperature difference of the ice surface is controlled within 0.5 degrees Celsius, saving more than 1 million KWH electricity every year.
4.National Aquatics Center 国家游泳中心
The National Aquatics Center will host curling competitions during the Winter Olympics, which produce three gold medals.
In preparation for the Winter Olympics, the competition hall has been transformed into an "ice cube" by water ice conversion. After the ice-making process is completed, four standard curling tracks 46 meters long and 4.8 meters wide are formed. Due to the high temperature and humidity requirements for curling, the air-conditioning, refrigeration and dehumidification systems in the arena have been upgraded.
5.Wukesong Sports Centre 五棵松体育馆
The Wukesong Sports Center will host the ice hockey competition at the Winter Olympics, producing a gold medal.
Wukesong Sports Center was the venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Basketball competition. After the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, wukesong Sports Center has been commercialized, hosting more than 80 sports events and entertainment activities every year, receiving about 1.5 million visitors, with a utilization rate of 70%, making it one of the most commercial legacies of the Olympic Games.
6.Shougang Ski Big Air 首钢滑雪大跳台中心
Shougang Ski Big Air is the world's first permanently retained and used ski big jump venue, as well as the only ski event venue located in the downtown area of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Four gold medals will be awarded during the Winter Olympics, including two golds for each woman and man in snowboarding and two golds for each man and woman in freestyle skiing.
The design of Shougang Ski Big Air is based on the image of "Flying apsaras" in Dunhuang fresco. The flying apsaras curve corresponds to the curve of the Big Air platform itself. The meaning of the Chinese characters of flying apsaras and the English word "Big Air" have the intention of jumping and flying into the Air. The total length of the platform structure is about 164 meters, the widest is about 34 meters, and the highest point is 60 meters.
Yanqing Cluster (2 Venues)
1.National Alpine Skiing Center 国家高山滑雪中心
The National Alpine Skiing Center will host alpine skiing events including downhill, slalom, giant slalom, Super G and all-around during the Winter Games, with 11 gold medals awarded during the Winter Olympic Games.
The National Alpine Skiing Center will be retained permanently after the competition. It is not only a world-class alpine skiing competition venue, snow sports training base, but also open to the public and become a public ski resort.
2.National Sliding Center 国家雪车雪橇中心
The National Bobsled Center will host bobsled, bobsled and steel frame bobsled events during the Winter Olympic Games with 10 gold medals. From a distance, the National Bobsled Center looks like a winding dragon perched on a ridge.
The course is divided into 54 cooling units and consists of 16 turns with different angles and gradients, among which the 11th is the unique 360 degree turn in the world. The track design fully considers the influence of weather on the track, and the venue is built on the south slope. The track is covered with semi-open sunshade and light shade to reasonably avoid the influence of solar radiation on the track.
Further reading:
Beijing-Zhangjiekou Train
