This February 4, the Winter Olympics begin in Beijing, in a special atmosphere. Diplomatic and health tensions, ecological issues: these 2022 Olympics are already special. Why not take to the skies with the satellites and (re)discover the Olympic sites from orbit?
After the facilities in Beijing, let’s take a look at the last site, that of Zhangjiakou, using photos from Airbus Defense & Space’s Pléiades Neo satellites. You can “navigate” on the picture by clicking here .
A site… covered in snow!
Yes, it changes from Yanqing. Zhangjiakou is located about 170 kilometers from the capital, in a mid-mountain area that is very cold in this season (at night, it drops below -10°C). The area is already well served by roads, highways and by train, as it has already hosted various mid-mountain resorts long before the Olympic Games. The choice to install the imposing grounds dedicated to cross-country skiing, biathlon and ski jumping is therefore no coincidence. And images from the Pléiades Neo satellites, in high resolution, show that while the snow on the slopes is undoubtedly helped by the snow cannons, the surroundings will probably be just as refreshingly white.
Genting snow park
If the athletes from the Zhangjiakou site will stay in the Olympic village built on site, there is a secondary site for the short and technical track events, located a little further north-east of the area, on the Genting snow park. The latter will host many disciplines: snowboarding, half pipe, freestyle skiing, slopestyle. Many of these activities are also scheduled at night.
On the same subject :
The 2022 Olympics seen by satellite: Beijing at the heart of the debates
Source: Press release
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