CRI听力:Beijing Looking Forward to Win the 2022 Bid

Chinese organizers have reiterated the country aims to host "sustainable" and "economical" games that can leave a "powerful legacy" for China and East Asia by improving the winter sports market.

To reduce costs, Beijing has already announced that several 2008 Olympic Games venues will be re-used for the indoor events of the winter games, including figure-skating, curling and hockey.

However, the sliding and skiing events will be held at two mountain sites in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, 70 and 180 kilometers away from Beijing respectively.

Speaking at the briefing in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing bid committee spokesperson Wang Hui said to host the games in three locations is not a weakness.

"The question is, is this a disadvantage or advantage to have three different venues? Many people think this is the weakness of Beijing, which is wrong, because we need to consider about the sustainability of the venues. We don't think having all venues in one location will bring benefit after the games."

In terms of the scarcity of snow, the spokesperson indicates the city's organizational ability will be a very important factor for running the games.

"You can't have a successful winter Olympic just by having deep snow, because the winter Olympics needs the ability to receive the guests, to organize the games, support by the people working on ticketing, volunteers, and security. Beijing has showed it can do it through the 2008 Olympic."

China is also expected to be counting on snow-making machines in order to guarantee sufficient snow.

Beijing is now looking forward to being the first city to have hosted both the summer and winter Olympic Games.

A committee member with Beijing's bid team, Wei Zhizhong, says if Beijing wins the bid, the development of winter sports in the country could be profoundly enhanced.

"If eventually we succeed to become the chosen city for the 2022 Winter Games, this will create a tremendous boost towards developing winter sports in our country. Besides having improvements in the infrastructure of winter sports, we are also looking to capitalize on the increased popular participation of the sports among the public."

As Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan are the only two competitors remaining in the race, the final result will be decided on Friday following a final presentation.

For CRI, I'm Huang Shan.