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How is Beijing going to produce snow for the Winter Olympics?

There’s a reason Beijing will soon become the first-ever city to host the Summer and Winter Olympics: The climate needs to be warm enough in the summer to host the former and cold enough in the winter to host the latter. And though Beijing isn’t exactly a tropical paradise, it’s not exactly Scandinavia either. So how is the Chinese city planning on having snow for the 2022 Winter Games it was awarded on Friday?

They’re going to make it. Almost all of it. That’s out of necessity, as here’s what the planned skiing course in Yanqing looked like between Jan. 20 and Jan. 23 of this year, when the IOC was making its final evaluation of the bid city:

(IOC via Business Insider)

(IOC via Business Insider)

The snow depth can usually be around two inches, but can be as little as one-third of an inch. In short, there’s going to be a Winter Olympics in a place without winter (or at least the kind of winter that you need to host a Winter Games).

Hhere’s what the IOC’s bid evaluation said of this tiny problem:

“The Zhangjiakou and Yanqing Zones [approximately 100-125 miles away from Beijing] have minimal annual snowfall and for the Games would rely completely on artificial snow. There would be no opportunity to haul snow from higher elevations for contingency maintenance to the racecourses so a contingency plan would rely on stockpiled man-made snow.”

This is all artificial snow in the stadium that hosted the main events of the 2008 Summer Games. (EPA)

This is all artificial snow in the stadium that hosted the main events of the 2008 Summer Games. (EPA)

Basically, giving the Winter Games to Beijing is like awarding the Super Bowl to a city without a football field.

But given the worries that accompanied the spectacular 2008 Summer Olympics in the city, it’s hard to doubt that the Chinese will be able to pull this off, even if Lindsay Vonn may be skiing down a mountain that has green grass a few feet to her left. And if all else fails, hey, the Opening Ceremony is going to be spectacular.

(AP)

(AP)

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