Foreign Influencers Praise Beijing's High-standard Preparations for Low-carbon Winter Olympics

On June 8, a group of foreign influencers paid a visit to the Shougang Industrial Park as part of the 2021 Silk Road Rediscovery Tour of Beijing: A Centurial Journey of Progress. The event was hosted by the Information Office of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality and organized by CRI Online of China Media Group. The visitors explored and experienced in person multiple spots of attraction there, i.e. the Big Air, No. 3 Blast Furnace, Ireading Bookstore, Wukesong Sports Center, and TUS Ice & Snow Sports Center.

Foreign influencers experience trampoline at the TUS Ice & Snow Sports Center. [Photo by Yan Weihan]

Celia Judith del Rosario Esquivel Salguero, a video blogger from Guatemala, said: "This is a whole new world to me, because I'm from a tropical country, and there is basically no Winter Olympics in my country. I hardly had any exposure to the Winter Olympics, and I'd like to know everything about it in Beijing."

Guatemalan video blogger Celia takes a picture in Shougang Park. [Photo by Yan Weihan]

Beijing is fully committed to holding Beijing 2022 Games in a green, sharing, open and clean manner, and has adopted high standards in the building of a "host city for both Summer and Winter Olympics". As of today, construction of all the competition venues has been completed and collectively tested during the Meet in Beijing series testing activities. The remaining 7 non-competition venues will be completed within the year. For the first time in the Olympics history, all venues of the Beijing 2022 Games will be using 100 percent green power, and carbon dioxide with a carbon emission close to zero will be used as the refrigerant on a large scale. All venues in Beijing and Yanqing competition areas are accessible via public transportation.

The 11 Beijing 2022 Games venues designated by the Beijing Organizing Committee for 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the International Olympic Committee recently passed the LEED certification. The Shougang Big Air is a permanent facility that will host the snowboarding and freestyle skiing games during the Winter Olympics. "Low-carbon and green energy are environmental topics concerning many countries. The low-carbon mode of the Beijing 2022 Games will set a role model for other countries hosting the Olympics," said Jeong Hyo Jeong, a South Korean video blogger who has experienced the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

British video blogger Lee John Barrett has a chat with the children on ice and snow sports. [Photo by Yan Weihan]

Last December, at the invitation of CRI Online, British video blogger Lee John Barrett and his son Oliver Joshua Barrett joined in the Silk Road Rediscovery Tour of Beijing's New Development and set foot on the Big Air for the first time. Lee John Barrett said: "We made a lot of videos here in December last year. It was a beautiful winter day. After watching the videos posted on the Barrett channel, a lot of foreigners thought the blue sky in the videos was fabricated. They couldn't believe it was the real Beijing sky, and they couldn't believe the December sky in Beijing was so blue."

He also mentioned that China did very well in reducing carbon emission, "Besides Beijing, other cities in China, such as Shenzhen, are also implementing environment protection practices. I think the Beijing Winter Olympics is a world-class event. I hope it will demonstrate China's great contribution to low-carbon in front of the whole world. Low-carbon Winter Olympics is a concept that is worth to be embraced and should be embraced by many Western countries. It's safe to say that Low-carbon Winter Olympics contributed to the global journey to carbon neutrality with the Beijing Solution and the Chinese Wisdom."

Lee John Barrett looked forward to the Beijing 2022 Games. "I wish I could get the ticket and watch the athletes do their tricks in the field. It must be very cool!"

Spanish video blogger Noelia Rodriguez Pascual dances on the ice at the Wukesong Sports Center. [Photo by Yan Weihan]

Yann Debelle-de Montby from France, Member of Advisory Committee of UNESCO International Center for Creativity and Sustainable Development, commented: "Shougang Park transformed an abandoned plant into a culture and creativity park, equivalent to bringing a new life to an old machine. Changing ruins into cultural creations is a brilliant and innovative idea in design. I love it very much. I hope that China will grow even more powerful, and the whole world will benefit from these design concepts and environmental protection concepts."

Foreign influencers take a group photo with a young skater. [Photo by Yan Weihan]

The Wukesong Sports Center will host the ice hockey training during the Winter Olympics. The center boasts two standard ice hockey fields that have adopted the carbon dioxide trans-critical direct cooling ice-making system among other Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics venues, saving energy consumption by 30 percent. For Gerhardt Joseph Van Der Merwe, a video blogger from South Africa, Beijing 2022 Games is not only a sports event, but also an excellent opportunity for China to demonstrate itself to the world and its determination to promote sustainable growth.

British video blogger Oliver Barrett skates and records a video with young skaters at the TUS Ice & Snow Sports Center. [Photo by Yan Weihan]

Foreign influencers take a group photo with the children. [Photo by Yan Weihan]

The TUS Ice and Snow Sports Center features three global-leading pneumatic membrane structured buildings, including two Olympic standard natural ice rinks of 1,800 sqm each and a curling rink. "I am so excited on the ice, and I feel like I'm flying," said video blogger Noelia Rodriguez Pascual from Spain, "I wish the Beijing Winter Olympics a great success!"