Hosting the nation's first ever Winter Olympics, China's capital Beijing will welcome the globe's finest sportspeople to their rinks and slopes.

Having only narrowly beaten Kazakh city Almaty by just four votes in the bidding process, officials are keen to dazzle once athletes land in the Far East and opening ceremony begins.

A record 109 events over five disciplines in seven sports will take place during the Games, with 91 nations having qualified to be represented.

Beijing 2022 will also see new events added by the International Olympic Committee in July 2018.

These include men's and women's big air freestyle, women's monobob, mixed team competitions in freestyle skiing aerials, ski jumping, snowboard cross and the mixed relay in short track speed skating.

The Games marks 98 years since the first Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France. In 1924, 250 athletes from 16 nations competed in just 16 events.

Finland and Norway won 28 medals, more than the rest of the participating nations combined.

When does the Winter Olympics start?

The 2022 Winter Olympics starts on Friday, 4 February to Sunday, 20 February.

Beijing is eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, which might result in some late nights and early mornings for fans looking to catch every minute of action.

The Opening Ceremony will happen on the same day as the first events, 4 February, 12:00PM GMT in the UK, 20:00 local Beijing time.

Directed by Zhang Yimou, the mastermind behind the iconic 2008 Bird's Nest curtain raiser, he will return after 14 years to deliver an unforgettable opening ceremony.

He claims viewers will be amazed at "a bold idea for the lighting and the design of the main cauldron," never seen before in the over 100 year history of the modern Olympics.

What channel is the Winter Olympics on?

Sharing the Winter Olympics broadcasting rights, the BBC and Eurosport will show full coverage of every event across the entire Games.

There will be over 300 hours of live coverage on BBC One and Two alone, while both the BBC and Eurosport gives viewers the option all the action as it happens on their TV channels and streaming services.

Four years ago in PyeongChang , South Korea, Norway came top of the medal table with 14 golds and 39 medals overall.

Meanwhile, Britain and China disappointingly won a single gold each.

Team GB will be out to make up for their poor showing last time out, which saw them finish 19th.