The German visited sites for sports including Alpine skiing, biathlon and ski jumping in the Zhangjiakou and Yanqing venue hubs.

When asked to mark Beijing 2022's progress out of ten by Xinhua, he responded by giving organisers the full house.

"The impressions are really excellent," he told Xinhua.

"The progress being made is remarkable. 

"The projects are within the schedule."

Bach also praised the Chinese Government's target of 300 million winter sport participants in time for Beijing 2022.

The host nation lacks heritage in many Winter Olympic disciplines, in particular snow sports.

"What is important is that we see the growing engagement of the Chinese people with winter sports," he added to Xinhua.

"We met children who were enthusiastically playing winter sports, and we met tourists who are becoming familiar with winter sports, and therefore making a great contribution to achieve this goal of making 300 million Chinese familiar with winter sports.

"With an education programme, we see that there is a team of people who are touring China and spreading Olympic values among the nation's youth.  

"And we see many pieces of art being produced and displayed around the world, including at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne." 

Beijing, the 2008 Summer Olympics host, will become the first city to host both versions of the Games in 2022.

The next Winter Olympics are currently due to begin on February 4 in 2022, at the Bird's Nest Stadium in the Chinese capital.