This Day, That Year

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

In March 1995, Chen Lu won the country’s first figure skating gold medal at the World Figure Skating Championships in Birmingham, United Kingdom. She was also the 1994 and 1998 Olympic bronze medalist.

In 2002, speed skater Yang Yang won the first Winter Olympic gold for China in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has won 59 world titles in her sports career, and is one of the most decorated shorttrack speed skaters.

In 2015, hockey player Song Andong made sporting history when he became the first player from China to be drafted to the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders as a defenseman.

China has been expanded its profile on the global winter sports stage.

Having won 13 Winter Olympic gold medals, Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, will host the 2022 Winter Games.

Riding the wave, the country’s winter sports industry has progressed in leaps and bounds.

In 2015, the central government unveiled a winter sports development plan to build a total of 650 skating rinks and 800 ski resorts by 2022, laying the foundation for 300 million people to get involved in winter sports to generate industry value of 1 trillion yuan ($158 billion) by 2025.

In the past two years, nearly 140,000 students in Beijing have taken skating and skiing lessons, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education.

The capital has named 52 primary and secondary schools as the first batch targeted to bring winter sports onto campuses ahead of 2022.

To promote the integrated development of junior sports, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei have strengthened their cooperative endeavors in the field of junior winter sports and its related training.