Here are a few things we’ve been reading on China’s Olympic progress:

The BBC’s Martin Patience makes the good point that Zhangjiakou doesn’t have a hill large enough to host the downhill were China to win the 2022 Olympics. Fake snow? Check. Clear the skies? No problem. Bigger hill? Hmmm….

TIME’s Hannah Beech looks at China’s performance so far and pours cold water on China’s bid for the 2022 Olympics: “it’s hard to imagine hearty Norwegian or Canadian Olympians wanting to inhale Chinese air in less than a decade’s time”. Luckily for China’s bid, it’s not up to them.

Some background on one of China’s gold-medal winners, Zhang Hong. Perhaps the Dutch won’t have it all their own way in 2018…?

A few stats from earlier:

• Zhang Hong’s winning margin in the 1,000 m speed skating – 0.67s  – was larger than the last four Olympic races combined.
• China only has five curling rinks and about 300 registered curlers in the entire country
• The IOC says 190 million people in China so far have watched at least 15 minutes of Olympic coverage.

And a quote to finish… It’s easy to forget that China does have athletes in sports other than short track, aerials and curling. Here’s a quote from cross-country skier Li Hongxue on whether China can catch up with the leading cross country teams:

“They’re too strong. No matter how hard we work we can’t catch them. Maybe the environments of China and their countries are different…after the Olympic Games, I’m changing career.”