From November 2021 to May 2022, Mengke Zhang went to China to conduct fieldwork in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, including one month of strict quarantine in the hotel according to China’s Covid prevention policy at that time.

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games were held from February 4th to 20th, and then the Winter Paralympic Games from March 4th to 13th, and because of the Olympic bubble during the time, the fieldwork was only made possible before January and after April, including all the selected case studies: Shougang, Qianmen (together with Giorgia Cestaro), Chongli and Yanqing. In addition to field observations, several interviews were conducted with experts, architects, planners and other agencies on site during the time.

This first-round fieldwork conducted by Mengke served as a way to better understand the field and to refine research questions and objectives that are important to the continuation of this research project. Due to unexpected Covid restrictions in China in 2022, a second round of fieldwork in Beijing and Zhangjiakou will take place at the end of 2022 or early 2023.