Beijing pledges clean air in bid to host 2022 Winter Olympics
Capital has plan to reduce smog in time for Winter Olympics, says committee making bid
Beijing has pledged to clean up its air to ensure ideal conditions for Winter Games athletes as part of its bid to host the event in 2022.
The capital is competing against Almaty in Kazakhstan after Oslo, Norway, dropped out last month, citing public opposition to its bid. The International Olympic Committee will make site evaluations in February and the winner will be decided in July.
"Beijing has called for cooperation from major provinces and districts in northern China and will mobilise all its resources to clean up the air and bring down the air quality index reading," she said.
"We'll make sure that by 2022 the air quality in Beijing is the best for athletes to compete in."
Air quality has been a persistent concern for athletes. Many of the 30,000 runners in an international marathon in Beijing last month wore gas masks because the city was blanketed by smog, with the air quality index climbing above 400. Any reading above 300 is considered "hazardous".
City officials launched a plan last year to clean up the air and reduce PM2.5 levels - tiny particles that can cause the most harm to health - in Beijing and its surrounding counties by a quarter from 2012 levels by 2017. Some of the measures undertaken include using less coal, cutting vehicle emissions and promoting a green economy.
Beijing Mayor Wang Anshun will lead a delegation on Friday to promote the city's bid to the General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees in Bangkok.
"We will make sure [the athletes] can perform the best in the Games if we could host the 2022 Winter Olympics," Wang Hui said, adding that Beijing's mayor would try to impress the Olympic Committee by showcasing the city's athletic facilities, its ability to fund the event and the benefit of making winter sports more popular in China.
In the 2022 bid, Beijing is pairing up with Zhangjiakou , about 200km away in Hebei province, with the capital using stadiums built for the 2008 Summer Games for ice events, and Zhangjiakou, which has several private ski resorts, staging the snow sports. A high-speed rail line would be built from Beijing to the mountains, according to the bid committee.
Ninety per cent of the funding would come from outside the government, a bid official said. The previous games, in the Russian city of Sochi, were the most expensive yet, at US$51 billion.
In Europe, potential host cities backed away after the public questioned the wisdom of spending on facilities that might later turn into white elephants.
But there has been a steadily growing market in Zhangjiakou for winter sports and tourism.
"There are about 90 snow slopes in Zhangjiakou's ski resorts. It's easy to upgrade them to Winter Olympics standards," Wang Hui said.
