90 km northwest of Beijing, a long white tongue cuts through the middle of an arid brown mountain.
This is "The Rock", the alpine ski slope specially designed for the Olympic Games which take place in the Chinese capital from February 4.
The place is surprising.
The white coat seems to have been drawn with a line in the middle of brown, dry and rocky peaks from which a few shrubs protrude.
A landscape far removed from the snow-capped peaks of the Alps or the Pyrenees.
100% of the snow is artificial at this Yanqing site.
A hundred kilometers away, a very thin film of snow that fell recently gives the Zhangjiakou site a less contrasting look.
But again, the snow cannons will be running at full speed for more than two weeks for the majority of ski and snowboard competitions.
Read alsoWinter Olympics 2022: artificial snow, wind and easy track ... "The Rock", the descent of the Beijing Games
It is the first time that the Winter Olympics have been held in such a dry landscape and without naturally fallen flakes.
A paradoxical situation at first sight since the temperature felt by alpine skiing competitors is close to -30°C at an altitude of 2200m, but which is explained by a constant lack of precipitation in the region.
The organizers of the Beijing Games have therefore deployed nearly 365 snow cannons on all the sites to remedy this cruel lack of snow cover.
A device that will be based on 2 million cubic meters of water collected during the competition.
If Beijing ensures that all the resources used during the competition will be recycled, the event will have a very long-term impact on the biodiversity of the region, since 25% of the Songshan nature reserve has been nibbled away to make way for the famous descent. of "The Rock", where the alpine skiing events will take place.
