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

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.