Beijing Games Village ready to welcome 2022 Winter Olympic athletes

The Games Village for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will provide international athletes with a safe and comfortable home away from home, the China Daily reported on Monday.

The Winter Olympics will be held from February 4 to February 20 next year in Beijing.

It will be the second global multi-sports event in the post-Covid era following the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games (July 23-August 8).

With the world still under the grip of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese organisers have left no stone unturned in their effort to deliver a safe Winter Olympic Games.

Nestled in the northeast part of downtown Beijing, the Games Village covers an area of 330,000 square metres'. The other two residential areas built for the athletes are in Yanqing district and Zhangjiakou, Hebei province.

The facilities and Covid-19 control and prevention measures will undergo an operational test this month. If it gets the green light, there will be a trial run on January 23 before it opens its doors to the athletes on January 27.

"We are trying to make the village a safe and comfortable home for every athlete and official where they can enjoy themselves and be as relaxed as possible and experience some of the cultural characteristics of the host city at the same time," Yang Jingfeng, deputy director of resident services for the village operation team, told the China Daily.

The residential areas layout draws inspiration from Beijings traditional quadrangle courtyards with the apartment buildings in the Village surrounding a central garden.

Cultural displays and traditional Chinese medicine promotional events will also be held in the Village plaza.

"It's quite important that we make the village special enough that athletes from all over the world recognise it's Beijing, it's China, once they settle in," said Yang.

Beijing will make history with the 2022 Games as no other city has the distinction of hosting both the Summer Games and the Winter Games in the past.

The Chinese Capital hosted the 2008 Summer Games with the iconic Birds Nest (Beijing National Stadium) witnessing the start of Usain Bolts run as the greatest track athlete in Olympic history.

Now with less than three months remaining for the start of the 2022 Winter Games, China is ready to witness the greatest winter athletes perform their magic on ice. (With inputs from The China Daily)