Chinese cities bid for the Winter Olympics : from Harbin’s failure to Beijing and Zhangjiakou’s success

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science

Publication Date

2016

Volume

5

Issue

2

First Page

120

Last Page

131

Publisher

Routledge

Keywords

Winter Olympics bids, Harbin, Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Chinese leaders, Chinese local governments

Abstract

Chinese cities have participated twice in bidding for the hosting rights of the Winter Olympics. While Harbin was eliminated in 2002, Beijing and Zhangjiakou won 13 years later. This article aims to examine the reasons for their respective failure and success. The findings confirm that Chinese local governments – at both provincial and municipal levels – lack the competence to independently make successful bids and that Chinese political leaders’ support and rival cities’ withdrawal were the keys to improving the odds for the Chinese bids.

DOI

10.1080/21640599.2016.1193302

Print ISSN

21640599

E-ISSN

21640602

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2016 Routledge. Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Chu, M. P. (2016). Chinese cities bid for the Winter Olympics: From Harbin’s failure to Beijing and Zhangjiakou’s success. Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science, 5(2), 120-131. doi: 10.1080/21640599.2016.1193302

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