Children perform in stage at the press conference. Photo: Courtesy of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

As the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games come closer, the world will again focus on the city, the first to hold both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Amid the great sports event, the 22nd "Meet in Beijing" International Arts Festival and Olympic Culture Festival will arrive in time, greeting guests around the world to the city.

The festival will be held from January 6 to February 18, 2022 and will present hundreds of performances with a variety of formats, online and on stage, from 22 different places, including South Korea and Italy, to create a strong cultural atmosphere for the coming Winter Olympic Games.

There will be five sections of the festival, according to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, including performing arts, visual arts, film screening and ceremonial events.

The press conference of the festival was held in Beijing's Shijingshan district on Monday and presented a briefing on the opening ceremony as well as of the different sections of the event.

A gala will be held for the opening ceremony of the festival on January 6. Using some new stage technology, the gala involves many Chinese stars singing and dancing such as Tan Weiwei, Zhang Bichen and Miriam Yeung, from the Hong Kong Special Administration Region.

Zhao Cong, head of the China National Traditional Orchestra, acted as the music director of the event. She said at the press conference that she will also play pipa on the gala, a Chinese traditional instrument, but the traditional music performance will combine with virtual reality and give audiences a fresh experience.

Many international elements will be presented in the festival. Overseas artists, including Italian street dancers, South Korean musicians and Russian ballet dancers, cannot arrive at the scene because of the COVID-19 epidemic, but they will still give brilliant performances online for the audience.

Youth is a focus of the arts festival and a special section was set for young people to help them enjoy the Winter Olympic Games. 

At the press conference, a children opera troupe in Beijing presented a part of the drama that was adapted from a novel written in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), stunning people at the scene.

The stage performance will be launched during the festival.

"As a major cultural activity during the Winter Olympic Games, the art festival provides us with a platform to fully combine the cultural work of the Winter Olympic Games with culture and tourism development," Xie Jinying, Director of the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, noted at the press conference.