Beijing's Yanqing District, one of the three host sites for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, launched bidding for sports venues construction on Nov. 17.
The bidding follows the public-private partnership (PPP) model after the National Speed Skating Hall, showing that China's winter sports industry is further opening up to private capital.
Zhang Yuan, executive deputy chief of Yanqing District, said at the launch of the bidding that the peak of mountains in the core area has an altitude of 2,199 meters with a natural drop of about 1,300 meters. With ample snow in the winter and high-altitude mountains, Yanqing boasts the proper climate and geography in accord with technical demands of alpine skiing venues.
The project will be carried out in the form of build-own-operate (BOO) and rebuild-operate-transfer (ROT). The venue cluster open for bidding includes the Olympic Village and mountain media center, as well as its transformation and operation after the games wrap up. The term of the partnership will be 30 years, Zhang said.
The venue cluster in Yanqing District is set to be the alpine skiing, bobsled and luge centers for the 2022 Games as well as to house a national snow training base and a Winter Olympics theme park. When the games conclude, the venue will be reconstructed into a skiing center for the public during the winter and a high-end tourist site during other seasons, Zhang said.
Prior to 2020, a transport network including one high-speed railway and three expressways will be built in Yanqing District to make it easier to travel to downtown Beijing and to Zhangjiakou, another Winter Olympic host city in Hebei Province.