The Beijing Winter Games are halfway through and the mood in the host city, the first to have hosted both a Summer and Winter Olympics, is mixed for most residents who cannot attend the competitions held in a rigidly pandemic-preventative “closed loop”. Alex Acker, an expat in Beijing for both Games, is showing the event at his Jing-A craft brewery branches but he says the 2008 Beijing Summer Games had felt like “a huge party” and saw the Chinese capital “really coming into its own”.
He believes that while Beijing residents are still excited for the Winter Games, it is “obviously muted due to COVID and not being able to go to events or mix with fans and athletes from around the world”.
Mathieu Herout, who owns a sports bar, was more downbeat, saying that while he had a “good crowd” for the opening ceremony, only a “handful of people come and watch the competitions”.
