CRI听力:Beijing's 2022 Bid Highlights Sustainability

The International Olympic Committee's executive board meetings have started in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Ahead of the final vote on the 2022 Games, IOC President Thomas Bach noted that high quality venues and facilities as well as plans for sustainable development are key to hosting a successful Olympics.

Beijing's bid team has shown confidence that the Chinese capital has unique advantages in these areas.

Gui Lin, an official with the bidding team, says Beijing takes athletes' needs into consideration when venues are planned and designed.

"As the host of the 2008 Olympic Games, we are fully aware of athletes' desire to save time as much as possible. For instance, the Olympic village should be close to venues or railway stations, but not too close; otherwise, it will be too noisy. Therefore, we made a proper arrangement for that."

According to Beijing's bid plan, all the ice events will be held in existing venues.

Retired Olympic champion Shen Xue says the existing venues are among the best of their kind in the world.

"When we were athletes, all the Chinese figure skaters conducted their daily training in domestic facilities, except for some overseas special training. Our facilities in the country are leading in the world in terms of hardware and software."

In response to IOC calls for sustainability in future Olympics, Beijing's bid plan includes not only the re-use of existing venues from the 2008 Olympic Games in downtown Beijing, but also the full use of infrastructure.

Wang Hui, spokeswoman for the Beijing's bid committee, takes the high speed railway linking Beijing and Zhangjiakou as an example.

"The planning of the railway linking Beijing and Zhangjiakou had been made before. Actually, it is a part of a rail between Beijing and Baotou, a section of which has been completed. Some people believe Beijing is building the high speed rail line especially for the Winter Olympics; on the contrary, we chose Zhangjiakou as the site for snow sports partly because of the previously planned high speed rail."

The final vote will be held on July 31 to determine which city will host the 2022 Winter Games. There are two bids in the running: Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan.

For CRI, I am qizhi.