The medals of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games Photo: VCG

 As the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics draws closer, the designs for the Olympic and Paralympics Winter Game medals have garnered more and more attention. On Monday, Chinese news outlet Science and Technology Daily reported that in addition to Chinese jade providing inspiration for the medals' designs, ancient Chinese astronomy has also contributed to their looks. 

The design team revealed that the patterns on the face of the medals were inspired by a diagram used in early astrological charts in China to track the path the sun takes across the sky over the course of a year.

The diagram was first recorded in the book Zhoubi Suanjing, or the Zhou Dynasty Classic of the Gnomon. Written thousands of years ago, the book, dedicated to astronomical observation and calculation, is one of the oldest Chinese mathematical texts. 

On the back of the medals are 24 dots that form thin sparkling lines, each dot is like a bright star shining in the night sky and therefore symbolizes the bright unlimited potential of the athletes.

The 24 dots also have a connections to the 24 Solar Terms used as part of the traditional Chinese calendar. These Solar Terms, such as Beginning of Spring and Rain Water, played an important role in tracking the seasons and for thousands of years helped guide farmers when it came to agricultural production.

The Paralympics medals have the same dots, but also sport the addition of braille. Since the Winter Olympic medals need to be larger than the Summer Olympic medals in order to stand out from the heavier clothing the athletes wear, the design team settled on medals that are 8.7 centimeters in diameter.

As the Winter Games will be held in Beijing, the first "double Olympics" city in the world, the new medal design also pays tribute to the gold inlaid with jade design of the 2008 medals but has made some changes to the texture of the medal surface.

The medals were designed by a team of teachers and students at the Central Academy of Fine Arts led by designer Hang Hai, who was also a core member of the team that designed the 2008 gold-with-jade medals.

The medals were unveiled to mark the 100-day countdown to the Olympic Games, which will start on February 4, 2022, during the Chinese New Year holiday.