Baku, July 31 AZERTAC
Beijing has been chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, beating the bid of Kazakhstan's Almaty, according to the BBC.
Having hosted the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese capital will be the first city to host both a summer and winter Games.
Beijing and Almaty were considered outsiders when the 2022 bid race opened two years ago.
But after a host of European cities withdrew for political or financial reasons, the Chinese bid beat Almaty by 44 votes to 40 with one abstention.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that Beijing was awarded the Games because it fitted its new agenda for a "stronger focus on sustainability, legacy, and transparency".
