Beijing launches 2022 bid website

Access to solicit slogans, anthems and posters from public

A year before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announces the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the Beijing Olympic Games Bid Committee launched its trilingual website at beijing-2022.cn on Thursday.

Earlier in July, Beijing joined Almaty of Kazakhstan and Oslo of Norway as candidate cities for the 2022 Winter Games. The candidates should submit their bids on January 7, 2015.

Wang Hui, head of the publicizing department of the bid committee, said the website will help the popularization of winter sports.

"We hope the website could help -people get to know the sports, and catch up with what is underway during the bidding procedure," said Wang.

The Chinese-English-French website will also act to solicit opinions, slogans, anthems and posters from the public.

Beijing's bid, made jointly with Zhangjiakou, a city northwest of Beijing in Hebei Province, faces strong skepticism on the Internet due to concerns on the air pollution in the region and the potential costly constructions of new stadiums.

It features three clusters in the two cities.

Five ice events will be held at the Olympic Center in downtown Beijing, including the Capital Indoor Stadium, which is set to host the figure skating and short track speed skating events, and the Wukesong Arena for ice hockey.

Only one new stadium, the National Speed Skating Stadium, is planned to be built in downtown Beijing for the speed skating event if the bid succeeds, according to the committee.

Competitions for luge, bobsleigh and alpine skiing will be held in Yan-qing county in the northwest of Beijing, about 90 kilometers from downtown.

All other skiing events will be held in Chongli county in Zhangjiakou.

If the bid succeeds, the opening and closing ceremonies will be held at the National Stadium, the main venue for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Bird's Nest.

Wu Jingmi, deputy secretary-general of Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games Bid Committee, believes the success of the 2008 Summer Games opening and closing ceremonies at the Bird's Nest could offer sufficient experience for another showpiece.

Furthermore, a new high-speed railway is also planned between the three competing clusters, which aims for a 20-minute journey between downtown Beijing and Yanqing and a further 40-minute route to Zhangjiakou.

China totaled 10 gold medals since Yang Yang, former short track speed skater and current IOC member, bagged the very first gold medal at the Salt Lake City event in 2002.