China on Friday opened to athletes and other participants in the 2022 Olympics its high-speed rail service linking the various Olympic areas, in a format that avoids any direct contact with the general population. Equipped with ski storage, Braille inscriptions for Paralympic athletes and even a 5G television studio, the trains will carry passengers at speeds of up to 350 km/h. These TGVs will transport their passengers over 174 kilometers between the Beijing Olympic sites and Zhangjiakou, the site of the Nordic skiing, biathlon and snowboarding competitions. Launched on Friday, this rail transport service will be in place until March 16, according to the official press. Some cars are specifically dedicated to travelers in the health bubble.They are separated from those occupied by the general public by a buffer car. "
The layout of the wagons is different from that of ordinary trains,
”explains Lu Pan, the head of the flight crew, to AFP.
To discover
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics medal table
One of the trains in service has a television studio, which allows Chinese media to broadcast live through hundreds of 5G relay stations installed along the track. The construction of this line cost 58.4 billion yuan (8.1 billion euros), according to the local newspaper
Beijing News
. It has been open to the general public since the end of 2019. With the approach of the Winter Olympics (February 4-20), officials, journalists, staff, volunteers and athletes have already begun to arrive in the Chinese capital. All must enter what the organizers call a "
closed loop
". Clearly, a health bubble that involves many measures to isolate these people from the rest of the population. Despite a few sporadic outbreaks, China has practically eradicated Covid-19 from its territory since the spring of 2020. But the authorities continue to do everything to prevent its spread in the country.
Organizers this week canceled plans to sell tickets for the Games.
They should, however, distribute invitations to ensure the presence of spectators.
Unlike Tokyo, where journalists could, for example, leave the health bubble after two weeks to go to the general population, the occupants of the health bubble of the 2022 Olympics will have to stay there for the duration of their stay in China.
They will move from one authorized place to another via spaces specially reserved for this purpose and isolated from the rest of the population.