Paper cutting art festival held to boost 2022 Winter Games bid

As China's capital continues its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, the 5th -Chinese Paper Cutting Art -Festival was kicked off on -Tuesday in Beijing to help promote the winter games.

As a part of the festival, which is being held at Yuxian county in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, the festival will be accepting paper cuttings from around the country featuring winter sports, the Winter Olympics logo, stadia and mascots from August 20 to November 30.

The creator of the best piece will be given a prestigious award, named after Yuxian's legendary paper artist Wang Laoshang, in February.

Ye Qiaobo, China's first Winter Olympic medalist, was named the spokeswoman for the festival. Ye won silver in the 500 meters and 1,000 meters short track speed skating event at the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France.

Chinese paper cutting entered UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in October 2009, the first festival was held soon after.

Beijing earned a global reputation after successfully hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, now the regional city of Zhangjiakou is looking to do the same.

Zhang Chunsheng, a senior official with -Zhangjiakou's bidding committee, stated that this program could boost the city's global reputation.-

"I hope when people are decorating their windows with paper art in 2022, Olympic champions will be coming to the city at the same time," Zhang said.

Chongli county, Zhangjia-kou, is set to host all the skiing events expect alpine skiing if the bid succeeds.

Beijing is competing with Oslo, Norway and Almaty, Kazakhstan for the honor of hosting the games. The host will be announced on July 31, 2015 at the 127th Session of the International Olympic -Committee in Kuala Lumpur.