Beijing

2022.12.19

Beijing, the capital of China, is the first city to host a quadrennial world-class sports game festival in both the summer and winter seasons.

Beijing is an inland city located on the northern edge of the vast Hebei Plain, with approximately 60% of its 16,410.54㎢ area occupied by mountains.
Compare this to its sister city, Tokyo, which has an area of 2,194㎢, and you can realize that it is immensity.
Although located at about the same latitude as Iwate Prefecture, the continental climate allows summer temperatures to exceed 30°C (86°F), while winters are bitterly cold, with temperatures below freezing in Beijing.

The AW3D 5m standard data image above of Beijing clearly shows a series of mountain ranges from the north to the west.

There are ranges in elevation from 400m to 1500m, with some exceeding 2000m.
The Yanshan Mountains in the north include Badaling, the famous Great Wall of China, with an elevation of 1015 meters.
Compared to the 599-meter-high Mt. Takao, a popular hiking destination in Tokyo, you can imagine how steep the mountain range is.
On the other hand, the plain is very flat, with elevations here roughly less than 50 meters above sea level, and Beijing's central location is here.

In the 2008 Summer Games, most of the competition took place on the plains in central Beijing.
In contrast, for the 2022 Winter Games, competitions were held in three zones: the plains and mountainous zones.

The first is the central Beijing zone, which includes The National Stadium known as "The Bird's Nest" which held the opening ceremony.
The winter game was aware of SDGs in mind. Therefore, most stadiums were again on the same playing field used in the summer games.
For example, The Capital Indoor Stadium had been for volleyball in the summer games, which was used as a stadium for figure, short track games, and many ice competition arenas in the winter games.

The second is the Yanqing Zone, located 75 km northwest of the center in the mountains.
In this zone, it was taken advantage of the mountainous terrain, such as alpine skiing and bobsledding.

The third is the Zhangjiakou Zone, which is adjacent to the northwest of Beijing.
This zone, a popular ski resort area in China, was the main field for skiing and snowboarding competitions, including freestyle, cross-country, and jumping.

One of the reasons why both summer and winter competitions could hold in Beijing was its geographical location.