How to watch the Beijing Winter Olympics and the opening ceremony from Australia

As Australia sweats through another summer, the world turns its attention to the cool competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The Games will run from February 4 to 20, and be followed by the Winter Paralympics from March 4 to 13.

Here's what you need to know about how and when to watch.

The Beijing Winter Olympics will be broadcast in Australia on free-to-air TV on Channel Seven.

You can also watch the Games on the streaming platform 7Plus.

The ABC will also be live blogging the opening ceremony and events at the Winter Olympics.

China has only one time zone, which is the same time zone as Perth (AWST), currently two hours behind Brisbane (AEST), and three hours behind Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart (AEDT).

The Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony is happening today (Friday) at 8:00pm AWST (11:00pm AEDT) and run for about two hours.

It will be held at the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest.

This was the same stadium which hosted the opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

The event will make the Bird's Nest the only stadium to have hosted opening ceremonies for both a summer and winter Olympics.

The Beijing Winter Olympics closing ceremony is due to be held on Sunday, February 20 at 8:00pm AWST (11:00pm AEDT) and run for about three hours.

It will also be held at the Bird's Nest.

The closing ceremony will see Beijing pass on the Winter Olympics to the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina-D'Ampezzo, where the 2026 Winter Olympics will be held.

There are 15 disciplines at the Beijing Winter Olympics:

Australia has 44 athletes competing in 10 disciplines: Alpine skiing, bobsleigh, cross-country skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, short track speed skating, skeleton and snowboard.

Women