This is the Beijing Olympic Village for the 2022 Winter Games in downtown Beijing – one of three villages now populated by thousands of athletes from all over the world as the Games began this week.
The complex is housing nearly 1,700 athletes and team officials from 44 countries and regions and some of China's teams have registered in the villages and have been training for acclimatization.
But this village is only one of three – with the Zhangjiakou Olympic Village and another in Yanqing also accommodating more than 3000 athletes from all over the world in total. Zhangjiakou and Yanqing are cities close to Beijing.
The Chinese ice hockey teams now live in the Beijing Olympic Village while the cross-country skiing, the moguls, snowboard parallel giant slalom, and biathlon team are in Zhangjiakou Olympic Village. Alpine skiing, bobsleigh, skeleton and luge teams are quartered at Yanqing.
Zhang Guannan, deputy director of the liaison department for the Beijing village's operations team, says the Beijing village is divided into three sections – an operations area, a residential area and a commercial plaza.
The reception centre in the operations area is the first stop of athletes after they arrive at the Beijing village, where they register and then head to the residential area. It not only offers comfortable accommodation but also houses fitness, entertainment, health care and other facilities.
The Beijing village menu has been approved by the International Olympic Committee, with all the dishes on the menu rotating in a cycle of eight days.
"The Beijing Olympic Village is a home of athletes, and the largest non-competition venue of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. It is also the venue that offers the longest services during the Winter Games," says Zhang.
Adopting an athlete-centred approach, the Beijing village has 24-hour accommodation, catering, and logistics services of premium quality.
To enhance the daily life of athletes and team officials, who live in a closed-loop environment, the Beijing village has equipped its commercial plaza with franchise stores, banks, a post office, a hair salon and convenient stores. There is also an exhibition area displaying traditional Chinese culture, aiming to build a platform of cultural communication.
The Beijing Olympic Village has also adopted a series of measures for pandemic response. For instance, all residents in the village have to go through nucleic acid test on a daily basis; signs are posted at multiple locations in the village to remind people of anti-pandemic measures; and dining halls are separated into small sections.
In addition, fitness and entertainment facilities, as well as stores in the commercial plaza will all cap the number of visitors to avoid crowding.
The Yanqing village also welcomed athletes and team officials on the day it was opened. Twenty-six Chinese athletes are living in the village during the Winter Games.
According to Cheng Hong, mayor of the Yanqing Olympic Village, the complex will receive nearly 1300 athletes and team officials from 91 countries and regions during the Winter Games.