Beijing 2022

A cheerful panda called Bing Dwen Dwen has been chosen as the Olympic mascot for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

The new Olympic mascot will serve as an ambassador for winter sports, bringing joy to those who participate in and watch the Olympic Winter Games. “Bing” means ice and also symbolises purity and strength, and “Dwen Dwen” represents children. The mascot embodies the strength and willpower of athletes and will help to promote the Olympic spirit.

Having won the bid for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games on 31 July 2015, Beijing is set to become the first city in the world to have hosted both the summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games.

With a vision of “Joyful Rendezvous upon Pure Ice and Snow,” Beijing 2022 will build on the legacies of the landmark Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and expects to encourage millions of people across China to embrace winter sports.

The 109 events in seven Olympic winter sports will be held in the three competition zones of central Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.

• Three Competition Zones

Beijing will host all the ice events (curling, ice hockey and skating) and four snow events (snowboard big air and freestyle skiing big air, men’s and women’s), making full use of the legacy venues of Beijing 2008 in the spirit of Olympic Agenda 2020.

Yanqing, a suburban district of Beijing (80km to the northwest) and home to the famous Badaling and Juyongguan stretches of the Great Wall, is to host the alpine skiing and sliding (bobsleigh, skeleton and luge) events.

Zhangjiakou, further to the northwest in the neighbouring Hebei province, will host all the other snow events (snowboard, freestyle skiing, cross country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined and biathlon) in its Chongli district, a popular skiing destination.

The Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway, to be completed by the end of 2019, will cut travel time from Beijing to Yanqing to 20 minutes, and from Beijing to Zhangjiakou to 50 minutes.

• Seven New Events

The addition of seven new events -- women’s monobob, freestyle skiing big air (men’s and women’s), and mixed team events in short track speed skating team relay, ski jumping, freestyle skiing aerials and snowboard cross -- to Beijing 2022’s sports programme will bring about the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games to date, with more female athletes (45.44 percent) and women's events than at any previous Games.

• Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)

The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will take place in February 2022, coinciding with the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), the most important holiday in China. Local residents are looking forward to welcoming athletes from around the globe to enjoy the Chinese New Year festivities, the majestic landscape and the rich cultures of Beijing, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou, as they charm the world with the beauty of winter sports.

Designed by artist Lin Cunzhen, the emblems combine traditional and modern elements of Chinese culture, as well as features embodying the passion and vitality of winter sports.

Inspired by 冬, the Chinese character for “winter”, the emblem resembles a skater at the top and a skier at the bottom. The flowing ribbon-like motif between them symbolises the host country’s rolling mountains, Olympic venues, ski pistes and skating rinks. It also points to the fact that the Games will coincide with the Chinese New Year.

The use of blue in the emblem represents dreams, the future and the purity of ice and snow, while red and yellow – the colours of China’s national flag – symbolise passion, youth and vitality.

The Games will become a catalyst for the take-off of winter sport in China and leave lasting legacies for the integrated social and economic development of the three competition zones, not least by bringing more skiing crowds and other kinds of tourism.

Here is the list of Beijing 2008 legacy venues to be used for Beijing 2022: