300 guns against the lack of snow

The Winter Olympics are taking place in a low-rainfall region in China. Snow is scarce, money and will is not. This leads to insane images.

The scenery in Shijingshan, a district in the south of the Chinese capital Beijing, evokes associations with the aesthetics of Craig Mazin’s award-winning TV series “Chernobyl”. The gray of the cooling towers merges into the gray of the prefabricated buildings, the sadness takes your breath away in a frightening way. This immaculate white band stands out all the more clearly, which has been the bright focal point in the district’s old steelworks complex for several weeks: the “Shougang” ski jump, venue of the “Big Air” Olympic competitions.

The choice of location for the only sports facility for the 2022 Winter Games within the Beijing metropolitan area is symbolic. Before the 2008 Summer Games, the steelworks that gave the ski jump its name was closed down by the Olympic organizers at the time in order to at least get some air pollution under control in the metropolis with 20 million inhabitants. Now, 14 years later, the fallow area is to celebrate its renaissance with the world’s first permanent “Big Air” facility.

The Chinese officials claim that this is “sustainable” – and completely ignore the fact that in Shijingshan, just like in Yanqing, a good 100 kilometers away, there is hardly any precipitation – let alone snow – which could be used to prepare the slopes.

300 guns against the lack of snow

Like Shijingshan, the Xiaohaituo Mountains around Yanqing, where the alpine ski races take place, are teeming with snow cannons. Around 300 of them are said to be in use during the Winter Games in China, powered by a vast amount of energy and fed with around one million cubic meters of water. “We only use green electricity from wind and solar energy. And the water comes from rivers, lakes and reservoirs. We don’t use groundwater. This allows us to ensure that the Olympic Games are environmentally friendly,” says Li Xin, senior snow producer in China Yanqing, at the “daily news”.

Statements that independent observers and experts regard as at least questionable. There are increasing signs that the Chinese regime had rivers re-bedded and dams pumped out in order to get to the precious water that is necessary for the production of the indispensable artificial snow. The “New York Times”, for example, estimates the cost of the mammoth infrastructural task at a good 60 million US dollars, i.e. a good 52.5 million euros.

Idyllic images for a clearly limited panorama

An amazing effort to create the impression of a winter sports idyll on the edge of the Gobi desert. Especially when you consider how clearly localized the impression of a snow-covered mountain panorama is. This is shown, for example, by pictures of the Norwegian ski racer Kjetil Jansrud taken from the plane.

Or recordings made by t-online Olympic reporter Alexander Kohne in Zhangjiakou’s biathlon stadium.

In the Zhangjiakou biathlon stadium, not one unnecessary square centimeter is artificially snowed. (Source: Alexander Kohne/t-online)

However, the whole truth also includes the fact that this madness could at least be set in motion much more easily by decisions in Europe – including in Germany. The populations of the regions of Munich and Graubünden (Switzerland), which are blessed with significantly more precipitation and are known as excellent winter sports destinations, decided against an official bid to host the 2022 Games, while the city parliaments in Oslo and Stockholm vetoed the proposal.

A lucrative business for unscrupulous companies

In addition, artificial snowmaking on the Xiaohaituo Mountains would hardly have been possible to this extent without the expertise of the Italian company Technoalpin. The company from Bolzano in South Tyrol has been responsible for the preparation of the routes and pistes for months, and also passes on its knowledge to the locals, who want to benefit from a supposed winter sports boom after the Olympics.

It is certainly a lucrative business that Technoalpin entered into there. But also one that demands few scruples: water shortage for millions of residents of the Beijing metropolitan region, soil erosion, environmental pollution – you have to be able to ignore all these buzzwords. Then it will certainly work to recognize the special charm of the Shougang Steelworks.

Scene causes horror: German awards gold shortly before the finish