The Zhangjiakou competition zone is situated around 125 miles west of Beijing in Hebei province, and it will be connected with the Chinese capital via a newly built high-speed rail network.

It is due to host ski jumping, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined and biathlon competitions during the Games.

Xi took the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed rail to attend the visit, during which he inspected the Taizicheng rail station, which will be close to the competition venues and athletes' village, the National Ski Jumping Centre, and the National Biathlon Centre.

The rail line went into operation on December 30 2019.

Xi also extended greetings to athletes, coaches and representatives of operation teams and construction staff in Zhangjiakou.

Zhangjiakou is also the site for the world’s first flexible DC power grid.

The grid will supposedly ensure the Beijing 2022 Winter Games are sustainable and achieve 100% green energy use.

The technology can deliver 14 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity every year, meeting the power needs of 26 Winter Olympic venues in the Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou zones.

The project can also help save 4.9 million tonnes of standard coal and 12.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, it is claimed.

Numerous politicians and human rights groups have called for a boycott of Beijing 2022 over China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims in the north-western region of Xinjiang, with allegations including holding Uyghurs in internment camps, mass sterilisation and suppressing the population.

China has vehemently denied the allegations.

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to begin on February 4, ending on February 20.