LAUSANNE, Jan. 6 -- Beijing on Tuesday handed over its official bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The IOC will send an evaluation team to China in March before it elects the host city of the 2022 Winter Games from either Beijing or Almaty, Kazakhstan, on July 31 in Kuala Lumpur.

Beijing will co-host the Games with Zhangjiakou, a Hebei province city some 200 kilometers northwest of the Chinese capital, if it wins the 2022 bid.