JINAN, Dec. 23 -- With a "truly exceptional Winter Games" at hand in just a few short years, China aims play a game-changing role for Olympic reform as preparations are in full swing for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Beijing hosted the Summer Games in 2008, and will become the first city ever to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) gave Beijing the right to host 2022 Winter Games.

Just as the past 40 years of reform and opening up have served as a big game changer for China as a whole, it did the same thing for sports in the country. China took part in its first Winter Olympics in 1980, and broke its Olympic gold drought at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

However, China failed to win the right to host 2000 Summer Olympics in 1993. Eight years later, China succeeded in bidding for 2008, and it was a true victory for Chinese people.

The successful Summer Olympics left China with abundant legacies such as modern sporting facilities, improved urban infrastructure and greater environmental awareness.

As China attached great importance to the idea of sustainability from the very beginning of bidding process to the current preparations for the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Games, among the 13 competition and non-competition venues in downtown Beijing, 11 are legacy venues from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

"A lot of venues in 2008 Summer Games are now being renovated to become suitable for winter sports for the 2022 Games," said Chang Yu, director of the Department of Media and Communications of the Beijing 2022 Games Organizing Committee.

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