Winter Olympics Photo:VCG

 China's customs pledged on Thursday to implement the port epidemic prevention and control work for the upcoming Winter Olympics, and to ensure high-quality and efficient health quarantine and material clearance services for relevant inbound personnel.

The remarks were made by Li Kuiwen, spokesperson for Chinese customs, at a press conference held in Beijing on Friday.

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games, co-hosted by Beijing and Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province, will kick off on February 4.

The customs authorities have introduced several measures to improve clearance efficiency. For instance, a special leaflet translated into many languages shows relevant personnel how to fill in the health declaration card in advance. 

As of January 10, 2022, Beijing customs has checked 196 planes and 5,958 relevant personnel.

The customs have also set up a special passage window, aiming to ensure relevant supplies and allowing personnel to be checked immediately around the clock. As of January 10, Beijing customs has cleared 637 parcels of inbound materials for the Winter Olympics, worth 1.499 billion yuan ($235 million).

The authorities also vowed to take advantage of technology, including a nuclear radiation holographic positioning system, universal disinfection cabinets, and intelligent inspection robots to further improve efficiency.

The atmosphere of the Olympics is already in the air in Beijing. In recent days, the capital city of China has been adorned with Olympic elements that can be spotted in many places. Inside the Shougang Industrial Park in Shijingshan district in western Beijing, elements of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games can be seen in every corner. Flags and banners printed with the Winter Olympic and Paralympic logos are hung around the park, which used to be a large steel plant.

As the games will be held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the spread of mutant strains such as Omicron that have brought great uncertainty to the global situation, the organizing committee has been making full preparations in an effort to minimize the possibility of the virus spreading during the games. 

The pre-games closed-loop management officially started operating on January 3 to welcome all Olympic-related personnel from overseas, signaling the final stage of preparations for the games.
The high-speed trains that will transport Olympic-related personnel among several competition areas will adopt divided carriages to separate Olympic participants from ordinary passengers, as the games coincide with the country's Spring Festival.

According to the code issued by the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, the pre-games closed-loop management requirements are essentially the same as those for the Winter Olympics, strictly limiting games-related personnel to a few fixed venues with no access to the outside world. These personnel are required to undergo daily virus testing and are only allowed to move between venues as arranged by the organizers.