Winter Olympic bids submitted

Berlin - Bejing and Almaty on Tuesday handed over their bid books for the 2022 Winter Olympics to the International Olympic Committee at the IOC headquarters in Lusanne, Switzerland.

The Chinese and Kazakh capital are the only remaining candidates in a field depleted by the withdrawals of Stockholm, Oslo, Krakow and Lviv.

IOC president Thomas Bach said in a statement: "It's an important day for the Olympic Winter Games in 2022 because we will now have the opportunity to see the vision of the two candidate cities."

The bid books, handed over a day ahead of Wednesday's deadline, deal with every aspect of hosting Olympics, ranging from venues and transportation to security and general infrastructure.

Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Summer Games, is considered favourite to be elected by the IOC on 31 July at its session in Kuala Lumpur.

Beijing and Almaty will be visited by an IOC evaluation committee in February and March, and its important report is to be published in early June.