Preparations for 2022 Olympics gearing up

China's preparation this year for the 2022 Winter Olympics will focus on venue readiness and training of Games-related staff, according to local governments.

Despite the deep winter chill and tough outdoor conditions, construction sites in northern Beijing's Olympic park and its mountainous Yanqing district are bustling with workers and machinery in the process of building the National Speed Skating Oval, the National Alpine Skiing Center and National Sliding Center, three new venues of the 26 needed for the Olympics over three zones - in Beijing's downtown, Yanqing and the capital's co-host Zhangjiakou, Hebei province.

With three years to go before the Olympics opens in February 2022, construction will be accelerated. Major structures of all four new competition venues in Beijing, including the Big Air slope in Shougang Industrial Park, will be completed by the end of this year, according to the city's construction regulatory body.