New forest park for Beijing 2022 Olympics set to open by end of 2020

Yanqing, one of the three competition zones for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, will complete the construction of a forest park for the Games by December 2020, local authorities said on Wednesday.

Construction on the park, with a planned area of about 100 hectares, started in April this year, and 40% of the first-phase project has been completed, according to Yu Shimin, head of Zhangshanying Township of Yanqing District.

According to the plan, the park will be integrated into local landscape, mainly displaying the culture of the Winter Olympics and providing recreation area for residents and tourists.

"The park will be the new home to more than 22,000 protected plants transplanted from the mountain areas that are being built for Winter Olympics venues," said Yu.

To better protect the trees, experts from the Beijing Forestry University conducted an ecological background survey on this area and worked out a protective transplanting plan, he added.

Since 2017, the Yanqing district government has established an database for 6,482 transplanted trees. In the future, visitors can get the information about each transplanted tree, such as its age and subject, by scanning the QR Code.

Located in northern Beijing, more than 70 percent are of Yanqing district is mountains. It will host Alpine skiing, bobsleigh and luge competitions during the 2022 Games.