Beijing Launches 2022 Winter Olympic Bid Website

If there's a website, then this must really be happening. The official website for Beijing and Zhangjiakou's joint bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games was launched on July 31, exactly a year before the International Olympic Committee chooses the host for that event. Final bid packages are due January 7, 2015.

The site is presented in Chinese, English, and French. It contains information about Beijing and Zhangjiakou, and updates on Olympic bid-related events, like the launch of the website itself and the breathtaking photo displayed above.

Beijing faces only two competitors: Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Oslo, Norway. A number of other cities, including Lviv, Ukraine, and Krakow, Poland, dropped out for political reasons or due to public opposition in those cities.

Beijing is now considered the front runner, even though our fair city received only about two flakes of snow this past winter. That's why the bid is being done in conjunction with Zhangjiakou in Hebei province, about 200 kilometers away.

Photo: Beijing 2022