Chinese Olympic Bid May Leave Farmers Dry

(ATR)Water needed by farmers for crops is being preserved for snowmaking at developing ski resorts north of Beijing.

In a story titled "Scientists Question Environmental Impact of China’s Winter Olympics Bid," New York Times writer Ian Johnson consults multiple sources about the water issues, including a farmer from northeast of Zhangjiakou – one of Beijing 2022’s two mountain clusters – who says that use of water in Yunzhou Reservoir is off limits.

Johnson - a Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent, who has reported on China for more than twenty years – advises the water, instead, is for use for snowmaking to develop nearby ski resorts as Beijing pushes to win its bid over Almaty, Kazakhstan for the 2022 Winter Games.

If Beijing wins, the Genting Secret Gardens Ski Resort in Chongli will need man-made snow for freestyle and snowboarding events. Nearby, additional snow would be required to cover expansive cross-country skiing and biathlon trails.

In December and January, the Chongli region, where the reservoir is, receives less than an inch of natural snow, therefore all will need to be produced artificially.

"Without artificial snow, no one could ski in this region," said Johnson of the mountainous area about 200 kilometers north of Beijing. "It is basically a desert in the winter."

"It basically never rains or snows in Beijing in the winter - maybe once or twice a year, but mostly a dusting of snow," said Johnson, who has lived in the greater Beijing area for approximately 15 of the past 30 years.

"As for the water crisis, it's very well known and been documented extensively," he said. "This is why the government just opened a new aqueduct to carry water from the Yangtze a thousand miles up to Beijing."

Similar issues face the proposed mountain cluster in Yanqing, an underdeveloped area which currently has no ski slopes but will be the site for Beijing’s National Alpine Ski Center.

Johnson and experts in water studies and alpine sport contend that development of ski resorts in the semi-arid area will be both environmentally damaging and ecologically unsustainable.

"Clearly there is absolutely nothing there – it’s a national nature reserve and has no roads," Johnson said about Yanqing. "There is basically no tourism infrastructure."

Johnson advised that he reached out to Beijing 2022 organizers and government officials in Beijing and Chongli on multiple occasions but did not receive a response.

According to Weber-Shandwick, the public relations firm representing Beijing 2022, they were not aware of any inquiries by the New York Times.

It was advised that Beijing 2022 would provide their position on the story at a later time.

The story also ran in the international edition of the New York Times under the front page headline "China waters dreams for ’22 Games, not its crops."

Written by Brian Pinelli

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