How Beijing Spent Billions More Than The Official Olympic Budget | True Cost 

Better than spending in 20 year war and get nothing like some country, And Olympic doesn't have every day.

I see very little fact finding has gone into this video, so let me explain why the 3.9 billion official figure is not as ridiculous as everyone thinks. I am a foreigner but I know the facts because my company is the main contractor of Zhangjiakou. The reason why so many of the infrastructure cost is not in the budget is because these are infrastructures built long before the Olympic. e.g. Genting Group started building the ski resort since 2007, many other real estates companies has also invested in these areas long before Winter Olympics was awarded in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 2015. Then these companies merely increased their investment knowing the Olympics will be held at their sites. How did these private companies make money from a public event? Well, because they are located near to Beijing, they started building and selling holiday resorts and retirement homes to Beijing residence. Whatever the private companies lose in building ski infrastructure, they made back double in real estate. These real estates has all been snatched up long since at handsome profits on land that practically cost nothing. Its a way of saying: instead of paying for the land, I will pay for infrastructure. Government way of returning the favour is to build highways, highspeed trains and promoting the area with Winter Olympic in what was one of the poorest areas in China. Poverty in these areas is non existent now, due the the Winter Olympics and the original settlers were all given new houses. As for public structures and trains budget, Beijing amortise the cost of these necessity facility over number of years. Why not built something you need today now instead of later has always been Xi infrastructure building policy. There is always much more that meets the eye in China. To understand China policies, either for good or bad, you will need a lot more research and not see things through conventional tinted glasses.

I love how Bloomberg is so concerned about China overspending on infrastructure and green tech for the Olympics and then the media comes out with a piece that justifies why it needs to spend billions overbudget for the F35 program

I pray that they actually use the villages after the games. There are so many Olympic villages that just sit and rot for no good reason.

The fact they actually came through and built all of this infrastructure and villages in time boogles my mind.

I noted that Business Insider derided the Beijing folks for using artificial ski machines but does she know that in the US over 90% of our venues also use artificial snow machines?

only 38b? that is less than building one high speed railway in california

Public infrastructure isn’t supposed to generate profits.

Business Insider is like "can you believe it, these games aren't going to make a profit. I can't believe it"

For China, hosting the Olympics is like a car company racing cars - testing your latest technology and then applying it to other models

the railway and highway shouldn't be considered as the Olympic budget since they are like other infrastructure projects that will facilitate people's travel.

Yep, China did build one line for the vunue commute, but it is not a fresh investment from ground zero. They just added one branch line to the massive domestic 40,000 km high speed railway network. auto train may seem fun and exciting to you. But to the Chinese, it could be just their daily subway line.

I don't get what the big issue is (other than the human and environmental cost). If the government is footing the bill and willing to spend more money on infrastructure, why is this as a problem?

This is interesting, now Business Insider please make a video on how America can raise its debt ceiling year after year when they are already 30 trillion dollars in debt and how they manage to print US dollar out of thin air by quantitative easing since they collapsed the global economy? give us the true cost too please, thanks.

So... the host wants to organize a party, and it costs money. The host doesn't complain about the cost, yet the outsiders complain on behalf of the host?!? Also, it seems like "long-term plans" have never been considered as a thing in the US/ West. Be it the politicians or the press.

I'm gonna say it, that Big Air Shougang venue looks like a high-heeled shoe sized extra-extra large

So short sighted! The infrastructure such as high speed rail , subway, ski resort are built to last, it’s not a one time wastes, given the high demand of winter sports venues, these facilities will be highly profitable.

So Business Insider can't even verify their "investigation" claims and we are suppose to take their conclusion as a fact?

Whether they spent $4B or 40B, it's for good intentions. I'd rather my country spend $40B on sporting facilities and bullet trains then $100Bs+ wasted in Afghanistan.

so China spend 30 billion on the olympic, while US spend 5800 billion on losing in afghanistan....

You should include references to the numbers you cite, instead of just saying

California has spent $98 billion on their bullet train and they still don’t even have a train or track. They estimate they will complete the first leg by 2029. In 2008 they estimated it would only cost $33 billion. That’s a cost of $2,480 per person. Most of who will never need or have traveled from LA to San Francisco.

The high speed rail is a part of the previously planned national route....... Business Insider do your homework ok?????

Please release the original interview with the expert, it is obvious for the trainline part he was cut off. The trainline and train as he said was a part of local project that will be built with or without the game. Beijing is crowded enough and the city expansion to outer cities is ongoing.

Infrastructure like the HSR to Zhangjiakou and its athletes' village is part of an investment for future domestic skiing tourism.

Lol, this is too funny.😂 All most all ski resorts use snow machines these days. China is no exception. Also, the snow fall might be low but every business knew location is key. The people from Beijing will has easy time reaching the venue, thus boosting the use of all the new facilities build. The high speed train would be build regardless of olympics. The project was pushed forwardto be build ahead of olympics but it was happening nonetheless. I am not a farmer but the farm land showed in the video looks more like a grazing land for animals. Animals can still graze even after solar panel is added. I am sure China spend more money than expected in the budget but this video is trying too hard to increase the numbers.

The big air is a permanent structure that was built for the world championship in 2019.

So you don't know the true cost, but you still manage to produce a video claiming "Beijing spends billions more"??? Epic journalism...

That doesn't sound right. The infrastructure and residential built in relevant areas can be used later so why count them as one-time olympic cost

It's doesn't matter the cost, China is the biggest creditor in the world and has so much public fund it's can spend on infrastructures without breaking the bank

If there is one country that don't make a loss out of an Olympics that would be China. They have the human capacity and also well thought out plans for whatever infrastructure they built for it. Instead of treating the infrastructure as "only for the Olympics" they would have definitely thought about what it will become after the Olympics, especially transport infrastructure. All the 2008 Beijing Olympics structures built are well kept and and in use till this day for example the birds nest. So I don't think its really fair to compare everyone the same way. Olympics has always been expensive, therefore well thought out planning is needed for every country if they want to host it.

after the Olympics, high speed rail and hydrogen buses is still going to be used in Beijing so business insider claiming it needs to be counted as part of the Olympics budget is ridiculous.

Even the used extra water was mentioned, the reporters did not know there is a nation wide water infrastructure project started ten years ago and now completed to channel extra water across thousands of Miles from south west... For 10years not a single HSR was added to California

All these investments are not only for the game, but also considering the future development of the area. Western media will never understand what is the five-years plans or ten-years plans; all they focus is profitable or not. After all, the longest term they can see is only 4 years. 🤷🏻‍♂️

When the narrator said, "$38 billion RELATED to the Olympics" is so opaque and irresponsible... Cuz that includes two high-speed railways from Beijing to Zhangjiakou that cost $24 billion. Also $8 billion for multiple skiing resorts, hotels, and even the Winter Olympic Village (currently athletes dorms) as residential real estate, which they are gonna sell to the general public after the game ends. China is promoting snowsports to the Chinese public as part of their "5-year plan", they built those railways and skiing resorts mostly for the potential market. On average Chinese people are 5 times less likely to go skiing/ice skating than average Americans/Canadians. Snowsports and tourism is a huge market in the next 20 years for China, targetting Millenials and Gen-Z. They are trying to lift the North China economy, which is stagnant these years compared to Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shanghai in South China.

Better than spending that money on wars. Anyone who agrees please hit like.

Throughline did an amazing podcast on the costs of the Olympic Games. Worth a listen. It’s not just China, the Olympic committee is just trying to greenwash it imo due to all of the recent scrutiny

The budget for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games is US $1.56 billion, with 6% government subsidy. Most of the venues use the venues of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Infrastructure such as railways will be built even without the Olympic Games, which cannot be counted as the cost of the Olympic Games.

The fact is 3.9 billion is only for the Olympic. The rest 35 billion is for the high-speed rail train project. Even if there is no Olympic, the train project would be still going. The reason it costs so low is most of the stadiums are re-used (constructed for the 2008 Olympic)

Fake… they use this farmer all the time. Last clip I saw him is another news said he is angry because of the solar factory. Here BI said it’s because of Olympic.

lol, money is just a figure. The fact that they reused the stadiums for the 2 olympic games is a fact of long term vision and proper planning. So all the olympic villages mentioned in the video can be easily converted into ski parks with accomodation. They would have been reused if the western media has the vision to look far enough. Reporting on the present would have made the video irrelevant by next year lol. The HSR connects 3 Host cities, and that is supposed to be part of the Olympic spending? That sounds pretty shallow to me lol. Considering how big of a market Chinese winter sports will be, It will probably outsize the entire world combined. So don't you worry.

Let's just build permanent Olympic infrastructure somewhere and stop spending money and burning fossil files to make a new Olympic village every 4 years

China spends more than the official budget of the Olympics, but at what cost? America spends more than the next nine countries combined on military, but at what cost?

Wow 38billion damn now im pretty sure many countries will no longer bid to host the olympics summer and winter

I almost expected that the headline "Billions More Than The Official Olympic Budget" would end up with "and Chinese stole another $20 billions from America".

Zhangjiakou is a tourist destination, every holiday here is always crowded with people, there is no need to worry about this place will be no tourists lol

I don't quite understand the issue here. Is China going to bill the IOC for the extra cost beyond the original budget? If not, what is the problem with China spending more money trying to make things better for the games? There is mentioning of the environmental impacts of the games. The fact that the main venue in Zhangjiakou has been built on the old site of a steel plant is an indication of China trying to reuse and recycle to miminise the impact to the land. The venues in Beijing are all existing venues from 2008 games. The irony is, there are heaps of comments in the west media to say that the cooling towers as a backdrop of the competition look grotesque. What can China do that can been deemed as right? If Beijing is not a suitable location for winter games, perhaps other cities should come forward to host the game. My understanding is Beijing had only one rivalry, ie. Almaty of Kazakhstan, in bidding for the games and IOC decided that Beijing is in a better position to host such an event (four other cities withdrew their applications due to a lack of resources and public support). I believe China is doing its best for the games, and might be spending a lot more out of its own pocket than the original budget. Those writer/speakers questioning the cost have no right to do so if they are not tax payers for the country. To finish my commnets, I will make an analogy: a group of people decide to have a dinner party and agreed to a budget. They decided to let Mr C host the party at his home as no other families offered to do so. One the day of the party, people realised that Mr C has spent way more than the original budget. Mr C showed no intention to ask people to pay the extra though. Some of the people coming to the party started to question why Mr C should be so wasteful, what impact this extra cost may cause his family, why Mr C should serve his meal in a bowl not a saucer, etc. Is this fair?

There you can see. You can depend on China to honour its commitments to make any event very memorable. Most athletes praised all the facilities unequalled anywhere . Go China ....

There are tons of videos right here on RU-vid about WHY Olympics are so expensive and a lot of it has nothing to do with the host nation. The standards set by the Olympic committee are sometimes absurd. Beijing is no difference in this regard. As for negative external costs that are not in the Olympic budget, I doubt anywhere else in the world do people take that into account in their estimation of the cost of hosting Olympics. At least this time many venues built for the Winter Games will be permanently available for the local community (which is a huge city with 20 million residents).

Can business insider confirm if they are funded by the N.E.D. ?

If the village is later converted into training facility or resorts, it will not be part of the budget. Right? Make sense?

How do you call yourself “Business Insider” with your shallow analysis on why China is doing the Winter Olympics? There are now 300 million Chinese participating in winter sports due to the hype from this event. Whatever the investment cost, it’s paltry compared to the gains from future consumption growth of buying snowboards, skis, skates, lift tickets, travel, so on and so on. China does not spend money frivolously, could be for pride, maybe politics, but definitely for future growth.

why usa worry about about olympic spending

2010 Vancouver $6 billion, 2014 Sochi $50 billion, 2018 Pyeong Chang $12.2 billion, 2022 Beijing $1.6 billion. The $38.5 billion by Business Insider is the gross-gross-gross-gross-gross-cost, which includes the construction cost of the Great Wall thousands of years ago.

No worries! At least, 300 million chinese people would enjoy the winter sports in the future 10 year. As Chinese, I think It's a long term investment, and will be paid off soon.

Not sure what is the intention here. to help Beijing/China save cost or to smear.. China has long term plan, the train is an investment. i would guess after this winter olympics, millions of chinese wlll try snow sport and it is a boom in local tourism.. the billions spent is worth it.. definitely better than spending on weapons.

No matter there is olympic or not, new airport and rainways will be built sooner or later, it's part of the infrastructure plan. And Zhangjiakou does snow in winter so it will be a winter sport resort for sure. After watching this video I kinda understand why most countries can't achieve fast development like China does. Investment in infrastructure is never a waste of money. That is exectly what government financial budget for.

Apartments in athletes village will be sold as real estate after the event.

The Winter Olympics just speed up the development of infrastructure like railways, which is not an Olympic cost.

Instead of having time to question and blame the Chinese government, let your government take care of the people in your country.

Is there anything you don’t suspect about China? Chinese economy can well support the costs and Chinese citizens are more than happy to spend on it. How about your country? The points you made are nonsense btw.

The olympics bring good marketing and tourism to a host country, but will leave them with a finacial burden for years to come

Actually this is one of the cheapest Olympics. The villages are partially funded by private companies that will convert to housing units and hotel after the game. A lot of these infrastructures are pre-existing structures. The ice cube can be converted back and forth to water cube in about 13 days for winter sports and summer sports for the public to use. One thing China don't have a lot is winter sports infrastructures. This will add to China infrastructures. And Zhangjiakou is one of those areas China wanted to spruced up anyway. I am sure they can convert the train anyway they want. China has pretty standardize HSR construction and trains. So they should be easily reused after the game. A lot of these concerns are complaining for the sake of complaining to interject some politics. You are damn if you do and you are damn if you don't. Well ice melt into ground and help the environment too. Farming is actually the leading cause of pollution because they remove native plants and use of pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic farm chemicals. China is very smart in their infrastructures spending. The last person it needs advice from is the America.

How they are willing to spend the money is their business.

wow, that's when you don't have to pay for wars

Athens: Our 2004 Olympics cost the country 18.7 billion dollars in 2021 dollars Sochi: Ours cost 59.7 billion dollars! NYC: *You guys hosted the Olympics?* Also, you forgot to mention at 2:50 that figure skating also takes place in the Beijing cluster.

Western media is just jealous of a country that is able to build infrastructures. btw, for leisure and ski resort economy, artificial snow is more than sufficient China's Olympic infrastructures didn't become abandoned sites like those of Rio and Athens. For competent countries like China, the Olympics is an opportunity Most 2008 Olympic stadiums are even being used in the 2022 Olympics, so this is a long term infrastructure investment, as well as diversifying the economy into Leisure industries. There is a lot of room for growth in China for winter sport industries, from ski resort economy, to simply increasing the demand for winter sports gear, which will no doubt would boost manufacturing and give Chinese brands more market to grow into.

haters gonna hate, whatever you do

Okay...we will probably never know what happened to this farmer after granting this interview.

That's basically an entire nation's budget right there

Someday they'll make a video on How Chinese breathe more air than any other country

Insider: THEY SPENT TOO MUCH MONEEEYSSS Also Insider: we couldn’t find how much x costs

Wow! How come China is so rich? They can afford to build a bullet train line just for one Olympic venue, when USA can't even afford to build one for the entire country? Amazing!

Well I feel like it's very hard to really build such huge scales of infrastructures without undermining some "human rights", I double quoted it because you didn't report how much these farmers are paid. They are paid a hell lot usually. I visited a small hotel in a mountain village while traveling and talked with the owner, he said that the villagers are about to be cleaned from the area because it's gonna be a new military base there, but they are given free apartments in the city, so their children have much better education (free), and they are paid a lot to happily accept the trade. But you know, you never make everyone happy. And that happens in the middle of a mountain in Shaanxi. So imagine what you get in a city like Beijing. Beijing really doesn't care about spending more money on the farmers because they rather make you happy to move yourself than wasting time negotiating with you when they need to get the infrastructure done in a limited time. You know China has the world longest railroads, and it's impossible that the government didn't removed a single house to build those railroads, but when it's there and everyone can travel so conveniently with very affordable prices, no one really cares if anyone's unhappy. Just like no one really cares if you are unhappy about the guns and drags around you in America, it's just things works differently in different places. ps. Probably consider counting the money they spent on the farmers lol

Here for my daily dose of salty westerners whining about China 🤣

With or without this 2022 winter Olympic, those infrastructures were planned and build on schedule because they were needed if you look at the population in the area. Please don't use your narrow and poor mind to think about others. In fact, the economy is booming since the fast train finished, and it brings a lot of opportunities for local poor people.

i used to thought insider is a good and professional business & tech channel but i was just confused why there is no any semple of China after seeing this video i finally realized it insider is just something soft antichina and it belongs to the USA its clear that all the contribution during the preparing phase for the olympic will bring huge chance for china to grow up and impress more young generations get interested in ice-sport and improve their health, being stronger someone says china is still in burdon of the huge cost from 2008 ... i only hope that guy is not from the US otherwise if he knows the truth he would lose his mind china applied for 2008 Beijing olympic in 2000, and next year in 2001 they applied for 2010 shanghai EXPO the same year they joined in WTO and won the right to host the olympic at the beginning of the year china has met the heavy snowstorm among the whole country, and on 12nd May it happened the Wenchuan Earthquake people of china conquered all the difficulties in that year and still fully prepared for the 2008 olympic the opening ceremony impressed the whole world and showed them the brand new china the 2010 EXPO in shanghai also brought the city huge development of 20 years earlier so now about dozen years later the country has been developping faster and stronger than before people getting more educated and richer, also finally made all more than 1,400,000,000 people get out of the porverty all of these were just in china's plan and it seeing them as its huge chance however, these are not the only fact i have to say the truth that the US guy better not to know is the US is actually affording huge burdons among the world its the largest creditor country in the world and it keeps making other countries paying the bill for it by dealing inflation but hell yeah, the US never give a shit, "That's a great asset, more inflation," Biden responded sarcastically over a din of reporters shouting questions, apparently not realizing his microphone was still on. "What a stupid son of a b*tch," he added.

Who cares. $38 Billion is nothing to Beijing.

The host nation of each Olympic invested countless money and manpower to host a game for the most talented athletes in the world to perform and fans around to world to enjoy. Those nations deserve applause.

My prediction, 2028 Los Angeles olympic will be the most expensive and infrastructure will not be completed on time (Same for Paris 2024). Mark my word! Now it's time to start making excuses.

No need to worry about the rising star throwing a small party.

The amounts spent bother you that much ? Why don't you look into the ledgers? The HSR will be used in the future. By the way, the ski lodges are destined to be used for winter sports now being promoted. Go to sleep and don't let the amount spent keep you await. It won't make any difference!

5:37 "often this costs would be done anyway" so what is it? You complain about costs missing, but also accept things like those infrastructures would be built anyway 🤷

China's winter sports industry is projected to triple from 2015 from $42 Billion to almost 157 Billion according to an article from Axios. When they first bid for the game they target 300 million winter sports participants. By this year they have already exceeded the target to 346 million. Looks like Business Insider doesn't understand the business of winter sports in China.

Let's face it, World. The Olympics, both winter AND summer, are just too damn expensive. Time to stop producing them.

Dont worry about us，close your colored eyes，take off your Pride and Prejudice， Do you kown ，how many RMB income ，just in one season year of winter sport station in zhangjiakou ？ 2 billion RMB just tickets fee income，not include some other ，so the business hold the olympic games in beijing is an good business。THIS IS IN CHINA，YES，WE CAN！

They forced people out of their homes when they hosted the summer Olympics, why should this be any different. The majority of the parking lots around the water cube and the Bird’s Nest stadium are flower gardens now.

This is really a great video, but as for me I make huge profits on my investment since I started trading with Mr Harry Webar

The facts are: Beijing makes good use of existing facilities, resulting in great cost reduction. I read one article that says, 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics spent about 10% of the cost used in other Winter Olympics.

If China didn’t deliver the Olympics on time, Insider would cover the failing infrastructure, but because the delivered, now they “estimate” the over spending. Always doom and gloom. Yea you wished you had those high speed trains.

Do you guys know that China is building a single railway (Sichuan-Tibet Railway) that will cost $50 billion in total? Infrastructure is a good investment

Can't wait to watch this brand of narrative when 2028 Summer Olympics will take place

It's so weird that BI has this type of comment about China's resident relocation program. I'm a Chinese student who studies in an international school, and I have done some research about this program. It's like a convention in China. When the government needs the land for specific purposes, the local officials will negotiate terms with the residents, and often these residents who are "forced" to leave their home will get a several new decorated houses in return. Second, the farmer is still farming near the solar panels, so....what do you mean? Besides, we are not a closed country, and the propaganda machine we have is not as powerful as many of the foreign media have reported. I feel bad that my country is denounced in such an irresponsible manner. I mean, I'm educated, so I'm open-minded, especially when reading articles or watching videos like this one, but you have to provide enough evidence so I can believe it. Like what is the purpose of showing a fraction of the interview with one misanthropic, cynical old farmer instead of showing us the whole interview or any government documentations? By common sense, no government can handle such a large country by continuous dehumanization and propaganda, or by lying to its residents and foreign media.

What's wrong with western media against China ? Whatever the cost doesn't concern you but the host nation

With the narrator's logic the whole Zhangjiakou was built for the Olympic, the title should be "Can you believe China built a city just for the Olympic?" there ya go that should attract more haters, and you're welcome.

China never ceases to amaze the world with their fascinating technological innovation and advancement!

Its Chinese money, they are spending. They are spending it on games not war like USA. So whats your problem??? Oil your own machine.

Building these venues is not really that much as after the games it will be a tourist destination. It also promotes the sport itself. I don't know why but this video comes off as envy.

$9.2 billion High Speed Train US: What's a High Speed Train?

That's good for the athletes. More convenience and comfort for them.😍