China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Hot for cold
A growing number of Chinese are enjoying winter experiences, especially skiing, this season, Yang Feiyue reports.
Domestic travelers are seeking wintertime activities, such as skiing, especially since COVID-19 has restricted outbound excursions. Ski-themed tour bookings surged by more than 350 percent since November as compared with the same period last year, Trip.com Group reports.
Tickets for winter activities in northern China have seen explosive growth, the online travel agency reports.
Changbai Mountain in Jilin province, Yabuli ski resort in Heilongjiang province and Zhangjiakou in Hebei province are among the most popular destinations this season.
Kanas in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Hulun Buir in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region are also luring more skiers.
Alibaba’s travel portal, Fliggy, tracked a 300 percent surge in searches for destinations in the country’s northeastern provinces and a 110 percent increase in winterproduct bookings during the Nov 11 Singles Day online shopping spree, which started on Nov 1, the agency’s data show.
Many ski resorts opened to the public in early November because of the early snow this year. Some began pre-sales in August.
“The ski market is indeed very hot,” says Zhang Xuguang, a manager with Genting Resort Secret Garden in Zhangjiakou, the city that will cohost some events during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The number of skiers visiting the garden has grown by 196 percent as compared with the same period of last year, Zhang says.
“We’ve clearly seen more people who’ve begun to ski,” he says.
The ski resort realized 9.4 million yuan ($1.4 million) in sales during the Singles Day promotion.
Twenty-eight ski resorts were built in 2019, bringing the total number to 770 nationwide, according to the 2019 China Ski Industry White Paper by Beijing Ski Association official Wu Bin.
Ski-resort visits reached 20.9 million last season, up 6 percent over the same period of 2017-18, the paper says.
China’s hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics and the country’s efforts in boosting winter tourism have played a positive role in increasing the number of visits, experts say.
In September 2018, the General Administration of Sport released an outline, which aimed to engage 300 million Chinese in winter sports by 2022 and thus better prepare for the Olympics. Winter-related industries are expected to reach 1 trillion yuan in value by 2025, according to the administration’s development plan.
The country is anticipating a boom in ice-and-snow tourism ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, says a China Tourism Academy report issued early this year. China received 224 million tourists from home and abroad during the winter season from late 2018 to early 2019, a 13.7 percent increase compared with the previous period.
Winter-tourism revenue reached 386 billion yuan during the same period, a 17 percent year-on-year increase, according to the report.
Major winter destinations have rolled out special packages to woo travelers.
Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei kicked off a joint winter-tourism promotion in mid-December. The event aimed to integrate winter-tourism resources and boost winter sports and culture to pave the way for the country’s hosting of the 2022 Games.
The three destinations focused on innovation and rolled out winter experiences that feature culture, tourism, sports and technology across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
Northeastern Beijing’s Miyun district has developed skiing, sightseeing, health-preservation, homestay, gourmet-food and shopping experiences for winter vacationers.
“We will combine winter resources, rural tourism and sports events this year,” says Miyun’s publicity department head Ge Junkai.
Pinggu district in the capital’s northeast has prepared organic-vegetable picking, flower-blossom sightseeing with a focus on chrysanthemums and fairs to enable visitors to experience local life in addition to winter sports.
Tianjin has prepared winter carnivals and ski competitions, while
Hebei’s Chengde city has developed 18 winter routes, integrating royalfamily history, hot springs, folk customs and shopping.
China’s northernmost province, Heilongjiang, has publicized 15 winter-tourism destinations and launched a series of events featuring art, sightseeing, hiking, fishing, hot springs, folk customs, culture and performances.
More than 400 cultural and recreational activities are planned in the provincial capital, Harbin, and the city’s government will distribute 48 million yuan in subsidies on online platforms. Some hot spots, such as the Harbin Ice and Snow World, will offer discounted tickets.
Yabuli ski resort is allowing travelers to use three of its major runs with a single pass.
Travelers in Heilongjiang’s Mohe can also enjoy forest-train rides and night skiing in Xuexiang village, as well as water-splashing performances, international crosscountry auto races, hot springs and hotpot.
Neighboring Jilin province has rolled out new tourism products and favorable policies. Since midNovember, a 100-day winter tourism festival has been running in the provincial capital, Changchun, where visitors can experience 100 winter activities, including marathons, large ice sculptures and a gourmet-food exhibition.
Changchun’s government plans to offer 7 million yuan worth of coupons to boost consumption during the festival. The city’s major ski facilities, including Tianding and Miaoxiang mountain resorts, offer visitors more than 40 ski tracks, covering more than 1 square kilometer.
Travelers can feast their eyes on the stunning rime, a special type of frost resembling granular tufts of ice, in the province’s second-biggest city, Jilin.
The high-speed railway linking Beijing and Zhangjiakou’s Chongli district has placed world-class ski experiences less than an hour away from the capital.
The tourism train connecting Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei that began running in mid-November has brought more access to the region’s wintertime offerings.
Visitors can enjoy the convenience of Jilin city’s recently opened bus service that connects Changchun Longjia International Airport with major scenic spots like Songhua Lake and Beidahu ski resort.
Still, experts are calling for more attention to safety and the sustainability of the domestic ski market.
Zhou Mingqi, founder of the T-identifier Think Tank that focuses on the culture and tourism industries, says that although the domestic ski market is developing rapidly, it’s still less mature than developed countries’.
Many domestic travelers ski out of curiosity, rather than a habit or lifestyle.
Consequently, service providers need to offer more pertinent and quality products for skiers of various levels and come up with ways to keep customers engaged, Zhou says.
Zhang, from Genting Resort Secret Garden, says he has faith in China’s improving ski market but believes there’s still room for relevant infrastructure and service providers to improve.
“We will combine winter resources, rural tourism and sports events this year.”
Ge Junkai, publicity department head of Beijing’s Miyun district