Ahead of the one-year countdown to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, all competition venues in Beijing are now ready for test events, the Beijing Major Projects Construction Headquarters Office announced on Wednesday.
The National Speed Skating Oval, the National Aquatics Center, the National Indoor Stadium, the Capital Gymnasium and the Wukesong Ice Sports Center have all completed ice-making work, while the Shougang Ski Jumping Platform has completed snow-making work, according to Ding Jianming, deputy director of the Office.
"This is an important sign of the transition from venue construction to testing and operational stages after the completion of Beijing competition venues at the end of 2020," Ding said.
With the completion of ice-making in all venues in the Beijing competition zone, the Chinese capital city has become the first host city in the history of Winter Olympic Games to use carbon dioxide environment-friendly refrigerants on a large scale. Compared with the traditional ways, carbon dioxide ice-making technology is safer and energy-saving, with accurate temperature control and zero emission.
The National Alpine Skiing Center and National Sliding Center in Yanqing district in the northwest outskirts of Beijing have been fully completed and have passed the international certification by the end of 2020.
As of January 2021, 49 of the 57 Beijing Winter Olympic venues and supporting infrastructure projects have been completed. Eight non-competition venues including that for the opening and closing ceremonies and the Main Media Center will be fully completed in 2021.
