Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on February 4 and declare the Games open, the Xinhua News agency reported. 

On Thursday, President Xi  delivered a video address  to the opening ceremony of the 139th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session, extending a warm welcome to IOC President Thomas Bach and other IOC members who have gathered in Beijing, the first city in the world to host both the summer and winter Olympic Games.

President Xi said that today's world, under the combined impact of changes unseen in a hundred years and the once-in-a-century pandemic, is entering a new period of turbulence and transformation and is facing multiple challenges. 

He thanked the IOC for its active contribution to the development of sport in China over the past years and for its strong support and guidance for China's bid and preparations for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

President Xi said that from "One World, One Dream" in 2008 to "Together for a Shared Future" in 2022, China has taken an active part in the Olympic Movement and consistently championed the Olympic spirit. China is committed to pursuing the Olympic ideal with concrete actions. 

Meanwhile, the IOC  released a short video clip titled "Olympics, see you again" on Thursday on its official Sina Weibo account to review 2008 Games and look into 2022. The video contains footage of the performances by Chinese athletes in the previous games.

President Xi noted that as the winter Olympics is set to open on February 4, the world is turning its eyes to China, and China is now ready. China will do its best to deliver to the world "a streamlined, safe and splendid" Games, while trying to realize "Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together".

The Beijing Winter Olympic Games is being held at a special time, as the world faces changes and a deadly pandemic unseen in a century. The theme of the Games, Together for a Shared Future, indicates that China has realized that no country alone can cope with the grave challenges, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.

After the Games, the fight against the pandemic and the recovery of the global economy are two major tasks before the world. It would be devastating if the world couldn't unite together to tackle the two issues, Lü said. 

Chinese experts believe that, with the rich experiences from the anti-virus efforts, China will hold a safe Olympic Games given such a challenging situation. "It would be a quiet but splendid Olympic Games," Lü said.

The Beijing Winter Olympic Games is being held at a special time, as the world faces changes and a deadly pandemic unseen in a century. The theme of the Games, Together for a Shared Future, indicates that China has realized that no country alone can cope with the grave challenges, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.

After the Games, the fight against the pandemic and the recovery of the global economy are two major tasks before the world. It would be devastating if the world couldn't unite together to tackle the two issues, Lü said. 

Chinese experts believe that, with the rich experiences from the anti-virus efforts, China will hold a safe Olympic Games given such a challenging situation. "It would be a quiet but splendid Olympic Games," Lü said. 

The Beijing Winter Olympic Games is scheduled to open on February 4. Chinese netizens have shown growing confidence for the opening ceremony as the torch relay is now underway in Beijing. Now, netizens heatedly discuss who might be the one to light the cauldron at the national stadium and how it might be lit.

Chinese athletes like the first Chinese Winter Olympic Games medal winner Ye Qiaobo, first Chinese Winter Olympic Games gold winner Yang Yang, and Wang Meng, the Chinese speed skater who won three gold medals in 2010 in Vancouver, are among the leading candidates.

The opening day also marks Lichun, the beginning of spring, on Chinese lunar calendar. 

Lichun is the first term of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar. It indicates the beginning of spring and the budding of hope. Setting the opening ceremony on this day shows Chinese people's good wishes for the Games and all the athletes. The meaning of the term also coincides with the theme of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games: Together for a Shared Future, Chinese experts say. Such warm arrangement is particularly touching amid the deadly pandemic. It is highly praised by the netizens, saying that it is a typical Chinese-style romance. 

Chinese people are not used to directly expressing their feelings and love to others, but you can always see unexpected romance and their sincerest kindness in details of their actions and arrangements, the netizens said.

Zhang Yimou, chief director of both opening ceremonies of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, told media that he would like to use a method to ignite the cauldron that "has not appeared in the more than 100-year history of the [modern] Olympic Games."

Li Ning's flying run to ignite the Olympic Cauldron in 2008 became a classic picture in the history of the Olympic Games, while in 2022 the method to ignite the cauldron will feature bold design and innovation, Zhang said, noting that the design is to reflect the concept of low-carbon environmental protection. The idea was supported by the Organizing Committee of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the IOC.

As director for two Olympic Games in Beijing, Zhang's participation in the opening ceremony also contributes to Chinese people's expectations given the splendid show he displayed in 2008. 

In contrast to the four-hour-long ceremony with 15,000 performers used in the 2008, Zhang told media that the opening ceremony for the 2022 Winter Olympics will rely on high technology instead of the previous "huge crowd" strategy, and will last less than 100 minutes and feature about 3,000 performers.

Zhang said he considers the Beijing 2008's opening ceremony as a classic event that cannot be repeated, so the Beijing 2022 version will try to stand apart by heading in a different direction.