Chinese Vice Premier Zhang inspects 2022 Winter Games venues

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli visits the Genting ski resort to inspect the construction of related Olympic infrastructure and see athletes in Zhangjiakou, north China's Hebei Province, Dec. 25, 2017. Zhang on Tuesday concluded a two-day inspection tour of Zhangjiakou, the city which will stage most of the Olympic skiing events for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on Tuesday concluded a two-day inspection tour of Zhangjiakou, the city which will stage most of the Olympic skiing events for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.

Accompanied by Liu Yandong, also a vice premier, Zhang visited a railway tunnel station, the Planning Exhibition Hall for the Zhangjiakou cluster and the Genting ski resort.

Zhang called for high-quality, efficient construction of all the related Olympic infrastructure.

He reiterated that the infrastructure construction should not only satisfy Games-time needs but also serve the long-term development goals of Beijing and neighboring Hebei Province.

Competition venues are split into three clusters for the 2022 Games, with curling, ice hockey and skating events due to be held in urban Beijing. The Yanqing venue cluster, which lies between Beijing and the city of Zhangjiakou, is set to stage Alpine skiing, bobsled, luge and skeleton, while Chongli in Zhangjiakou is the planned site for freestyle skiing, snowboarding, cross-country, Nordic combined, ski jumping and biathlon events.

As highlighted in Beijing's bid plans, China has pledged to encourage 300 million people to participate in winter sports ahead of the 2022 Games.

Liu called for more efforts to be made to expand participation in winter sports across the country.