Public infrastructure
The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games contributed to the socio-economic development of what is known as the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Sports, Cultural and Tourism Belt, which comprises the three competition zones: Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.
This development was coordinated, with transport systems being interconnected, industries developed in conjunction with each other, improvements made to IT networks and infrastructures, and public services shared in the competition zones.
Improvements in the transport system centred on links between the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed rail line and Beijing-Chongli Expressway – both built for the Games – Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport and Zhangjiakou Ningyuan Airport. They extended to local passenger hubs, tourist attractions, Olympic venues, ski and holiday resorts, and population centres large and small, all with the intention of cutting journey times for people and goods.
Fully operational since December 2020, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed rail line has cut the journey time between the two cities from over three hours to 48 minutes, while the trip from the capital to Yanqing now takes just 26 minutes. In its first year, the new 174km rail line and its 350kmh trains carried 6.806 million passengers.
The Beijing-Chongli Expressway, which opened in January 2020, has also cut travel times. Before it came into operation, it took three hours to drive from Beijing’s 6th Ring Road to Zhangjiakou and 2.5 hours from Yanqing to Zhangjiakou, journey times that have respectively been reduced to 1.5 hours and 50 minutes. The construction of the road for the Games has since allowed Chongli district in Zhangjiakou, with its ski resorts, to attract more visitors and become a hub for culture and tourism.
This development has been backed up by enhanced IT networks and infrastructure that make extensive use of 5G, big data, AI and blockchains, improving connectivity for transport users, enabling faster security checks, and ultimately allowing visitors to enjoy a better experience.
An example of this is provided by Line 11 of the Beijing Subway, which has been serving the city’s Olympic venues since 2021. A smart rail-transit line, it features smart dispatching, operation and maintenance, and uses cloud platforms and other IT infrastructure. The city’s rail-transit system was expanded to 27 lines in preparation for the Games and runs more than 10,000 trains and carries nearly 10 million passengers every day. During peak hours, trains at a minimum of every two minutes on 10 of the subway’s lines.
Zhangjiakou has also benefitted from upgrades to its infrastructure, including passenger transport hubs and the supply of drinking water and mains electricity, the latter in the shape of the Zhangbei high-voltage direct current (HVDC) grid project.
In terms of communications, 1,606 5G stations were built in the Zhangjiakou area alone before the end of 2020, providing speedier network coverage for the airport, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high speed rail line, the city centre and Chongli district. By May 2021, the Zhangjiakou competition zone was fully covered by a 5G network boasting the latest technology, the most responsive sensors, and the highest energy efficiency.