The final choice for the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics was uninspiring. One candidate, Beijing, which co-bid with the lesser-known Chinese city of Zhangjiakou, spent months trying to convince International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegates that its famously bad air — not to mention lack of natural snow — shouldn’t scupper its chances.
The other contender, Almaty, boast lots of powdery stuff because of its positioning at the foothills of the Tian Shan range. (Almaty’s slogan, perhaps aimed at Beijing and its man-made snow, was Keeping It Real.) But Kazakhstan’s former capital had to overcome a serious obstacle: its obscurity, …read more
Source: Time
