Officially, ChongLi is a County in the City of Zhangjiakou. This is why many references of the 2022 Winter Olympics sites refer to Zhangjiakou and not ChongLi. Make no mistake though in thinking they are anywhere similar in nature. ChongLi is a real mountain high elevation town. Zhangjiakou proper is a lowland desert city 50 km to the south where it hardly ever snows.
However, getting to ChongLi is a process of getting to Zhangjiakou and then taking the road (a 4 lane expressway) north 50 km to ChongLi. Getting to Zhangjiakou has 3, and soon to be 4, options:
1. Drive from Beijing on the G6 expressway. This is a 3-4 hour trip depending on traffic.
2. Take the trains from Beijing to Zhangjiakou. The former Zhangjiakou South train station has been closed and a new station closer to the intersection of G6 and the road to ChongLi called Shalingzi is now the train station for Zhangjiakou. The trip is 3+ hours with sleeper service available on most trains. Eventually, the high speed train from Beijing to Inner Mongolia will pass through Zhangjiakou cutting the trip to less than 1 hour but that is still under construction.
3. Take a bus. If you can connect with one of the busses the resorts run back and forth to Beijing, this is a great option at a reasonable cost. However, they do not run everyday and the schedules are always changing so check with the resorts if you want to try this option. The other are the public busses. These are very cheap but take longer and more difficult to navigate if you do not speak Mandarin or are not familiar with traveling in China by public bus.
4. The soon to be 4th option is by plane. A new airport has been built (Zhangjiakou ZCZ) that is supposed to be opened in January 2019. However, service schedules, routes and carriers have not been announced. Certainly, there will be flights from Shanghai and a few other major cities, but whether there will be a short flight from Beijing has not been announced.
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