Welcome to a winter wonderland

More than 980,000 people from home and abroad have successfully applied to fill 39,000 volunteer vacancies for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Games, according to the organizing committee.

With 95 percent of the applicants aged between 18 and 35, the volunteer program is expected to leave a legacy for the country's sports sector in the service and operation of winter events.

"Through intensive and professional training following the recruitment stage, we will prepare our volunteers to the best of their ability for the unique challenges of serving at the Winter Olympics in the face of extreme weather conditions, highly demanding professional skills and COVID-19 prevention measures," said Teng Shengping, director of Beijing 2022's volunteer department.

With the pandemic unlikely to be contained effectively worldwide anytime soon, Beijing 2022 organizers reckon that they are still facing an uphill battle to work out solutions for an adapted sports testing program, while drawing up virus-prevention protocols involving travel control, quarantine and social distancing.

According to a joint decision made by Beijing 2022, the IOC, IPC and winter sports' global governing bodies, the original plan of hosting 15 Winter Olympic and five Paralympic test events through April 2021 had been scrapped due to the pandemic's impact on international travel and quarantine policies.