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Zhangjiakou has training schools and overseas projects for winter sports, says mayor

July 30, 2015 22:41 IST

A villager walks along billboards with the bidding logo of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics near Genting Ski Resort, which could host some Olympic skiing events, in Chongli county of Zhangjiakou. Photograph: Jason Lee/Reuters

Zhangjiakou, the joint-bidding city of Beijing for 2022 Winter Olympics, is developing fast in skiing industry. Mayor Hou Liang said on Thursday that the Hebei city had been training coaches to meet the need of the rapid development.

"There are currently about 20,000 people engaged in skiing industry, including 400 coaches," said Hou. "We have established two schools to train skiing coaches and we also have some coaches trained abroad."

Hou is a member of Beijing 2022 which will give a presentation on Friday before the IOC decide the host city of the 2022 Winter Games. He is confident of his city and his own speech.

"We are ready for the presentation," Hou said.

"I think Zhangjiakou has several highlights. The area has very beautiful ecological environment, and the air quality is the best in northern China. Zhangjiakou is very close to Beijing, so we have a large market. Currently there are five skiing resorts in Zhangjiakou, and all of them are privately invested. They are running very well."

Beijing and Zhangjiakou are expected to become a big market for winter sports and the market will benefit not only the Chinese.

"Because of the experience from what we got in 2008, in 2022 all the sponsors will enjoy the same tax exemption policies," said Zhou Xing, Deputy Director of Finance and Marketing Development Department of Beijing 2022.

Local residents dance during a rehearsal for a possible upcoming celebration event on Friday afternoon, at a square in Chongli county of Zhangjiakou, which is jointly bidding with the capital Beijing to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Photograph: Jason Lee/Reuters

At the same time, Air pollution remained a popular topic for media on Thursday.

"There are several figures supporting Beijing's improvement on air quality," said Fang Li, general director of the Environmental Protection Department of the Beijing 2022, when asked about the air quality in Beijing.

"Last year, the concentration of PM2.5 in Beijing dropped four percent from the previous year, and in the first half of 2015 the concentration dropped 15.2 percent from the same period of last year."

"In Beijing we have a lot of stations all over the city monitoring the air quality, and they release the data every hour," said Zhai Qing, a member of Beijing 2022 leading panel.

"Our data can be found in all the major websites, and you can easily judge the air quality by analyzing those reports."

"We ourselves are citizens of Beijing," added Zhai. "We share the same concern of the air in Beijing."

Source: Xinhua News Agency