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BEIJING -- The IOC evaluation commission will visit Beijing from March 24 to 28 before a final decision is scheduled to be made at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31. Which city will be selected between Beijing and Almaty of Kazakhstan? For Beijing, the host city of 2008 Olympics, what's its advantages that can help it win the bid?
EXPERIENCE
The Beijing's 2008 Summer Olympics is a great success and also a great promotion for the Olympic Movement. The Olympics is staged in the world's most populous country, which alone can be counted as a remarkable achievement in the Olympics chronicle. The organization of the 2008 Games is persuasive and impressive for IOC to give its credit and confidence to the city once again.
The Beijing Olympics 2008 is tagged with "exclusive" in IOC's closing ceremony comments. What makes Beijing's chance tangible is last year's Youth Olympics in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, where IOC president Thomas Bach and his colleagues had personally felt the Chinese enthusiasm for sports and the reliability of Chinese government in guaranteeing a successful sports tournament.
China's Lu Shengrong, former world badminton chief and IOC member for 1996-2001, is confident of Beijing's race for its second Olympics.
"I am optimistic," Lu said. "Beijing has an advantage, or experience, that any other cities don't."
Lu stressed the "smoothest communication and cooperation between the host city and the IOC in the Olympic history" during Beijing's preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
FACILITY
The 2008 Olympics leave Beijing not only the experience, but abundant facilities, which makes Beijing's preparation for the expected 2022 Winter Olympics already half done. As the capital city, Beijing's infrastructure, transportation, accommodation are more than capable of catering to the 2022 Olympics. For the stadia left from 2008 Olympics, including the Water Cube swimming center and the national indoor stadium, they can serve as 2022 venues and can meet most of the demands for ice sports, like figure skating, speed skating, ice hockey, curling etc. Beijing needs to build only one new stadium for speed skating.
The facility reutilization and budget saving is in comply with the IOC 2020 Agenda, which emphasizes budget control and Olympics relics. IOC President Thomas Bach had said that Beijing's vision complied with IOC's reforms after Beijing handed over its official bid.
Former NBA player Yao Ming, a promotion ambassador of the 2022 bid, said Beijing's infrastructure and experience as a 2008 host made it "a prime candidate".
"Our bid is in line with the IOC's 2020 Agenda," said Yang Yang, who is an IOC member and China's first ever winter Olympic gold winner.
PUBLIC SUPPORT
94.8 percent of the Chinese people, including 91.8 percent of Beijing citizens and 99.5 percent of Zhangjiakou citizens, are in support of their joint bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, according to the opinion poll last year by the Beijing Branch of Ipsos, a global market research company.
It's stunning to see such a wide public support for the 2022 Olympics bid in a country of over 1.3 billion people. The sincerity, ardor and expectation for 2022 Olympics from Chinese people should be received during the commission's visit of Beijing and can also play a positive role in bidding vote.
LEGACY
It seems nowhere can have a legacy from the 2022 Winter Olympics like it does to Beijing. It's estimated there will be over 300 million Chinese to be involved in the winter sports if Beijing and Zhangjiakou win the bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Over one-third of China's territory has huge potential for developing winter sports. The bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics will encourage 300 million people in northern China to take part in winter sports, tremendously promoting young people's participation in and the popularization of winter sports.
"It will inspire over 300 million Chinese to participate in winter sports if we win, which will contribute greatly to the development of international Olympic cause," said Chinese President Xi Jinping on January when he met with Sheik Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, president of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) and chief of the Olympic Council of Asia.
Xi told Sheik Ahmad that the Chinese government attached "great importance" to Beijing and Zhangjiakou's joint bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
"Beijing's bid for the Winter Olympics is a springboard for hundreds of millions of Chinese to join in sports on ice and snow," Chinese vice premier Liu Yandong said last month during her visit to the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games Bid Committee.
"The bid will not only spread the Olympic spirit but also popularize winter sports in the country which is striving to be a bona fide world sports power."
The vice premier noted the bid will help promote service sectors such as fitness, leisure, culture and tourism and improve environment in north China.
The legacy from a possible Beijing 2022 Olympics is not confined to the leap forward for the Olympics cause, but also will trigger a profound upgrade for the city.
China is aiming to speed up its environmental protection and improvement, especially to solve the smog trouble in and around Beijing, by taking the advantage of Beijing 2022 efforts.
Clean energies will be developed and energy-saving and eco-friendly technologies and products will be applied extensively in the coming years in Beijing and surrounding cities. Beijing will formulate guides on 2022 sustainable development, establish and implement both the Beijing 2022 sustainability management system and criteria system.
The coming of 2022 Olympics will be a accelerator for the return of Beijing's blue sky.
