Olympics Redux: New Day in the Ancient Capital

In southwestern Beijing, capital of China, a park named Jinzhongdu was built to commemorate the city’s history as capital of the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234).

This dynasty, established by an ethnic group called Jurchen, ruled northern and northeastern China for a century. Subsequently, Beijing consistently served as a fort on the border of ancient empires before becoming the capital of China’s last three feudal dynasties, Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644), and Qing (1644-1911), and then capital of the People’s Republic of China.

Ancient City with Olympic Imprints

In Jinzhongdu Park, the statues of Jurchen warriors and horses were recently accompanied by billboards displaying the ABCs of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, a stark contrast to 800 years ago. Numerous activities celebrating Beijing 2022 were held there.

Built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty, the Temple of Heaven was an important place for Ming and Qing emperors to visit annually to pray to Heaven for a good harvest. The place is now a renowned tourist site with its own Olympic imprints.

Outside the north gate of the Temple of Heaven is a clear blue line which its staff reported was the starting line for the marathon event in the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. Many distance running enthusiasts have run the route in the years since.

The ancient capital leveraged its magnificent history, profound culture, and cutting-edge technology to host a second Olympic Games in its own way.

Low-Carbon City

Recognizing the challenge of global warming, Beijing has made great efforts to reduce carbon emissions. In 2020, the city’s carbon dioxide emissions per 10,000 yuan of GDP were 0.41 tons, a 26-percent drop from 2015 and a greater improvement than the 20.5-percent decrease target set by the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

In the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), two strikingly giant wind turbines were installed by Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co., Ltd., a global leader in clean energy, energy conservation, and environmental protection. By the end of September 2021, its business covered 32 countries in six continents, and the cumulative installed capacity of its global wind power exceeded 80GW, ranking first in China and in the top three globally for many years. Its exports of wind turbine generator systems account for more than 60 percent of China’s total.

Alongside offering renewable energy solutions for the whole world, this company has been deeply involved in China’s endeavors to organize a low-carbon Games. Goldwind participated in Olympic venue construction in 2008. Beijing Guanting Wind Power Plant was the first large-scale wind energy provider in Beijing. Goldwind’s wind turbine generator systems were operated by the plant, which provided 20 percent of the power for the Olympic venues.  

For the 2022 Winter Games, Goldwind participated in the construction of the Zhangbei renewable energy project in Zhangjiakou City, the co-host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics. This time, the company also provided renewable energy for the venues, helping fulfill the goal of 100-percent clean energy supply for the 2022 Winter Olympics venues.

Heading to Smart City

Beijing is also an innovation hub for China. The number of patents held per 10,000 people in the city is 183.1, ranking first in China. Annual tech-related contract volume has reached about 700 billion yuan (around US$100 billion), up by 11 percent year on year. A total of 29,000 high-tech enterprises operate in Beijing, accounting for 10.3 percent of the country’s total.

During the torch relay for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a Level 5 autonomous vehicle developed by Baidu carried the Olympic torch for about 800 meters. The unique-looking car has steering wheel or pedals, highlighting the Chinese tech giant’s great efforts in developing self-driving technology during the last decade.

Baidu has built the world’s largest innovation platform for autonomous driving. In November 2017, the company undertook the task of building a National Open Innovation Platform for Artificial Intelligence with Autonomous Driving. The project has boosted autonomous driving, intelligent vehicle infrastructure cooperative systems, and intelligent car connectivity. Baidu has applied for more than 3,000 autonomous driving-related patents, and its platform-based road test mileage has reached nearly 20 million kilometers.

On May 26, 2020, Apollo Park in the BDA was completed and officially began operation. Integrating functions such as autonomous driving research, a big data cloud control platform, 5G parallel driving, and sensor system calibration, Apollo Park is currently the world’s largest autonomous driving and vehicle-road collaboration test base.

A new narrative for the ancient capital has gradually unraveled for the world alongside the Beijing Winter Olympics.