In the huge waiting room at Qinghe station in Beijing (China), the atmosphere is almost muted. Nothing to do with the crowd and the noise that we know in the other big stations of the city. The 148,000 square meter building, designed by a subsidiary of SNCF, was built especially for the Olympic Games.
Like him, other major sports and transport infrastructures have been built for several years for the Beijing Olympics, which start on February 4, 2022. With 40 days from the kick-off of the event, everything seems ready. for the start of the competition at the three sites built in and around Beijing.
# beijing2022 almost ready, 60 m high, the big air shougang built in a former industrial park to host Olympic snowboard events pic.twitter.com/JfNP9ZvwrP
– Seb Berriot (@SBerriot) December 15, 2021
Qinghe Station will serve as a departure point for athletes to reach Chongli Ski Resort in Hebei Province. Once the Games are over, this station will no longer really be used, say the gossips. To make the trip, a high speed line was built with an automatic driving TGV. Full of new technologies, it is the pride of this hostess. “The train is controlled by artificial intelligence. There are 2,700 sensors on board to measure everything from vibrations to lights. In addition, this train has advanced technology that withstands very low temperatures, up to at -40 degrees. “
At the end of the line, the small ski resort of Chongli. Here, we pushed the mountains to build a giant springboard for ski jumping. Thousands of peasants have also had to leave their homes. “The village was moved before 2018 to allow the construction of the Olympic venues”, explains Jia Maoting, the deputy site logistics manager. “The villagers were installed next door. They were compensated”, he assures.
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The Olympic Games venue in Beijing has also been the subject of a huge investment. The old Shougang steel complex has been transformed to accommodate freestyle skiing and snowboarding. “It is a mixture of industrial heritage and Olympic competition site”, welcomes Zaho Wei, the operations manager. “We have preserved vestiges of the old factory: refrigeration chimneys, some hangars … And in the middle, we installed this large diving board 60 meters high. This transformation of an industrial site into an Olympic site in a way permanent is a world first. “ On the other hand, the bill may be heavy. During the 2008 Olympics, China had indeed spent the incredible sum of 40 billion dollars.