in august 2008 beijing took center stage as the host of the summer olympics with the quadrennial
athletic competition serving as china's coming out party now almost 14 years later the chinese
capital is under the spotlight once again as host of the 2022 winter olympic games
once the games are officially declared open at the national stadium in fewer than two hours from now
beijing will become the very first city to host both the summer and winter games steve
wade of the ap international joins us live from the very site good evening to you steve so the
very opening ceremony will be at the same stage as a ceremony of the 2008 event directed by the
same director now back in 2008 we saw a massive event with tens of thousands of participants and
hundreds of thousands of spectators on site obviously it's been dramatically skilled back
due to covet what are we expecting from the opening ceremony this time around
well first thing i tell you it's cold i was here in 2008 on the opening ceremony the
temperature was about 32 33 degrees very hot 91 000 people tonight we're going to have a stadium
almost empty only with selected guests the temperature is sub-zero the ceremony i think
is going to last a maximum two hours gonna be much shorter much more downplayed event and this event
is much much smaller than the summer games we have 29 2900 athletes the summer games have 11
000 so it's a very very different atmosphere this right time steve we've also been hearing about
the beijing bubble or the closed loop that the chinese authorities have constructed to keep the
game's covers free and to prevent the virus from spreading into the wider population how has the
closed loop system been working i mean how does it work you're in it right now how tight is it
yeah it's very tight let me tell you just getting in here was very difficult it's almost an olympian
event just to get in the country i work in japan i left japan i had two tests before i
left the country i had to download an app a lot of documents to get on the plane when you arrive
you go to the hotel you're tested again you get on the bus you go to the venue you get back on
the bus you go back to the venue there's no no contact with real beijing here so i worked here
10 15 years ago friends i have here impossible to visit we're in a very closed off space it's
like an occupied territory sort of olympic territory and then the rest of beijing we have no
contact with the rest of beijing that means the journalists and the athletes the very same way
now uh what about the public how is the winter games being received by the chinese public
how does it compare with the enthusiasm among the chinese public that we saw back in 2008 because
i remember residents gathering in their thousands across beijing to watch the
summer olympics opening ceremony on large public screens 14 years ago
no comparison i think the chinese public in general are certainly aware of what's
going on here on weibo this morning some of my chinese colleagues were looking it was really
not trending the focus was believe it or not on the poor performance of the chinese football team
this is a much much smaller event than the summer games were 14 years ago there's almost
no comparison i was here in 2008 this new stadium the bird's nest went up the excitement the level
of interest was unbelievable china was coming on the world stage that's not that's not the
choice right now china was a surprise to get these games uh four six european countries dropped out
the ioc was left with kazakhstan and beijing they chose beijing beijing i think nobody in the world
was more surprised than beijing to get these games but as it turns out they're the first country with
the winter and summer the first city with the winter and summer games but no comparison i'd say
right um not only that when the curtain is finally raised at 8 pm beijing time which is in
less than two hours from now the opening ceremony for the 2022 games will be
markedly different from that of 2008. under the cloud of covet and the international backlash
of course it'll be a much more muted affair and with a very different guest list will it not steve
yeah i mean really the only guest of i say politicians of real importance are putin
thomas bach and xi ji ping the the general secretary of the communist party those are
the three principles they'll be the ones on television the other guests the other political
representatives most of them come from countries that are allied or dependent on china for
a lot of business a lot of central asian countries what's interesting is the top
sports countries the top winter sports countries u.s canada sweden norway the countries are
expected to win the medals almost nobody from those countries are here countries that don't
really participate in winter sports are the country's most widely represented so that's
sort of a curious curious fact i looked on the list i would say there's about 25 heads of state
or heads of government or representatives of governments who are here no comparison to
you know 2008 when they're probably i'm not sure probably at least 100 maybe more all right steve
wade of ap international live for us from the beijing national stadium where in less than
two hours we'll see the opening ceremony of the 2022 beijing winter olympic games kickoff
thank you steve for that and for braving the cold thank you thank you very much