Final details tended to before February's Beijing Games
With hotels booked, menus finalized and flights reserved, Beijing 2022 organizers are pushing forward meticulously with their final preparations to offer both athletes and officials a pleasant and safe experience at next year's Winter Olympics.
With less than two months to go before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Feb 4, Chinese organizers－supported by the country's border control, transport and health authorities－are preparing for large groups of international athletes, officials and media as early as next month, with services catering to arrivals and departures, accommodation, and transportation all at the ready.
Accredited Games participants from abroad have to travel to China via chartered or temporary flights due to the limited number of commercial flights amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with Beijing Capital International Airport set as the only available port of entry and departure, according to the Beijing 2022 organizing committee.
In addition to chartered flights arranged by delegations on their own, Beijing 2022 and China's civil aviation regulator have guaranteed temporary flights, provided by 17 airlines, connecting Beijing with 15 overseas destinations, including Singapore, Paris and Tokyo, prior to and during the Games, Beijing 2022 organizers said on Dec 10.
All international participants have to submit negative results of nucleic acid tests twice within 96 hours before departure for Beijing, and are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or will have to undergo a 21-day hard quarantine on arriving in Beijing.
"We've been trying our utmost to arrange as many choices and make international travel plans as convenient as possible to Beijing for all the Games participants. Yet strict COVID-19 countermeasures will be followed throughout the process to guarantee that safety for everyone is a top priority," Zhang Liang, Beijing 2022's director of arrivals and departures, said at a news conference on Dec 10.
Once arriving in Beijing healthy and safe, accredited participants will have to enter a biosecure bubble, described as a "closed loop" in the official COVID-19 playbook, where they can only travel between their training, competition and work venues and their accommodation facilities via official transport services, which will be operated between Jan 21 and March 16.
The 2022 Games have prepared 4,090 vehicles, mostly powered by electricity and hydrogen fuel, to operate in exclusive Olympic and Paralympic traffic lanes of over 270 kilometers.
Authorities have established 16 transportation hubs across three hosting areas－Beijing downtown, its northwest Yanqing district and co-host Zhangjiakou, Hebei province－to make sure that official shuttle service runs smoothly and on schedule within the bubble.
The Olympic lanes, which cover all the main roads and expressways between the airport and Games venues, are being marked out by Beijing 2022 logos and will not be accessible by non-Olympic public and private vehicles starting from two weeks ahead of the Games.
As part of pandemic containment measures, screens will be set between drivers and passengers in designated vehicles, while each shuttle bus for athletes and media will be allowed to carry up to half of full capacity, according to Beijing 2022's transport department.
"We are confident that the measures and policies made so far will enable a running of the official transportation services with high efficiency during the Games," said Zhao Tong'an, deputy director of the transport department.
Such measures regarding arrivals, COVID-19 containment and closed-loop transportation had been tested during a series of international trial events since early October. A total of 71 inbound and 57 outbound flights carrying over 2,000 passengers for the test events proceeded efficiently and safely as of Dec 9, according to Beijing 2022 organizers.
To offer international participants a cozy and warm home, Beijing 2022's accommodation team has been optimizing services and facilities at all three Olympic Villages across three zones and 82 designated hotels based on feedback from athletes and officials, who had taken part in the just-concluded test event series.
A series of amenities, such as convenience stores, laundromats, Chinese cultural exhibits and 24-hour room service are being prepared and tested as well, according to Beijing 2022 Games services department.
An official menu for athletes and officials that includes over 600 dishes will also be adjusted with the addition of festival specials, such as sweet dumpling soup and fried spring rolls. It's expected to offer participants a taste of Chinese culinary delights during the Lunar New Year.
The menu, which has been approved by the International Olympic Committee, was designed to meet the different dietary needs of athletes, while also taking religious diversity into account with vegetarian, halal and kosher meals also available.