Winter sports gain traction

Driven by President Xi’s vision and Beijing 2022, more Chinese take to ice and snow games

As the Beijing Winter Olympics get into full swing, millions of winter sports enthusiasts are being inspired to hit ice rinks and ski slopes across China.

The country’s drive to get 300 million people involved in winter sports, an initiative set out by President Xi Jinping in the bidding stages for the global sports event, has bolstered the number of participants and resulted in a growing number of facilities. The boom has also spawned market opportunities that benefit domestic and foreign companies and workers.

Xi has championed fully exploiting the nation’s ice and snow resources, saying on multiple occasions that “ice and snow are also as valuable as gold and silver”.

“I have said green mountains and lucid waters are invaluable assets, and so are ice and snow-covered land now. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games have driven the growth of the ice and snow sports industry as well as the ice and snow economy,” he told Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, last month in Beijing.

Xi added that he pays more attention to the impetus the Games will give to China’s future than the number of medals the country wins at the event.

That vision has already been vindicated. The number of ice and snowrelated trips made by Chinese people reached 230 million in 2020-21. Income from ice and snow tourism, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, exceeded 390 billion yuan ($61.4 billion) last year, according to an official report released before the Games.

“What is unusual about the Beijing Winter Olympics is that hosting a mega event was combined with an economic plan to develop an entire winter sports industry, and link it with economic development in poor mountain areas, especially in the distant suburbs of Beijing,” said Susan Brownell, a sports anthropologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who specializes in China and the Olympics.

Brownell said China’s winter sports infrastructure has received a huge boost. At the beginning of 2021, the country had 654 standard skating rinks and 803 indoor and outdoor ski resorts, up 317 percent and 41 percent respectively from 2015, according to official data.

The size of China’s ice and snow sector increased from 270 billion yuan in 2015 to 600 billion yuan in 2020, according a report released by the China Tourism Academy last year.

About 346 million people, or almost a quarter of the Chinese population, had participated in ice and snow sports by October 2021, after Beijing’s successful 2015 bid to host the Games, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

China has transformed from a beginner to a “winter sports country”, according to Bach. “The 300 million people who have now been made familiar with winter sport will in the end be the great legacy of these Olympic Winter Games,” he said.

Brownell said Xi, an ardent sports fan and a “big supporter of sports in China”, has played a key role in uniting different government systems behind one vision to promote the growth of winter sports.

During inspection trips to Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, Xi underlined the key role of the ice and snow sector in shoring up economic growth. The northeastern provinces endure long, harsh winters and have experienced an exodus of young people and slowing economic growth over the years.

In September 2018, Xi visited Chagan Lake, Jilin, the only area in China where traditional Mongolian ice fishing is used. The president spoke with fishermen and was briefed on efforts to treat pollutants and protect the environment.

He told local officials that lush mountains and lucid waters, as well as the ice and snow-covered land, are both invaluable assets, adding that the protection of the environment and the development of ecotourism must be aligned.

Shan Junguo, an official with the authority that administers the lake, said Xi’s vision has been vindicated, as the area has been transformed into a major hub for winter sports and tourism.

A number of events, including a national skiing competition for college students and a marathon held on the frozen lake, have attracted winter sports enthusiasts.

With sound protection measures in place, the environment in and around the lake has undergone a fundamental shift, paving the way for thriving tourism, Shan said.

Jilin is expected to receive 85 million tourist visits that generate 170 billion yuan in revenue during the winter season, Jing Junhai, the province’s top official, said in an article published early this month in the Qiushi Journal, a flagship magazine of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

The development of the winter sports sector has had an even bigger impact on Hebei province and Zhangjiakou, one of the host cities for the 2022 Winter Olympics. For example, development of the Beijing Zhangjiakou high-speed railway has reduced the travel time between the two cities from three hours to 48 minutes.

In 2017 and 2021, Xi made inspection trips to Chongli, a district in Zhangjiakou where some of the Games’ skiing and snowboarding events are being held, and stressed the need to promote winter sports among children and increase public fitness levels through participation in sports.

He called for efforts to develop an area that integrates sports, cultural and tourism industries in Beijing and Zhangjiakou, to further the integrated development of the Beijing Tianjin-Hebei region.

Liu Xinrui, an Alpine skiing coach in Chongli, has experienced firsthand the great changes in the district over the past five years. “When I first arrived in the county in 2016, it was like a rural township and no restaurant was open late at night. Now it’s like a city that never sleeps,” she said.

The district’s status as a renowned ski center began in 1996 when local villagers built a 300-meter snow trail. Now over 30,000 people are employed in the skiing industry or tourism services.

Foreign investors have also benefited from the ski center’s development over the years.

Tian Moyi, a marketing manager of MND Group, a French company that deals in ropeways, snow systems, mountain safety and leisure infrastructure, said the immense potential for winter sports in China was behind the company’s decision to launch a joint venture in Zhangjiakou in 2017.

With the number of ski resorts expanding nationwide, the company has expanded its business to Sichuan province and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, she said.

“We are more than optimistic about the prospect of growth in China. As the people get richer, the demand for winter sports and leisure will naturally grow,” she said.

Shu Wen, executive vice-president of Genting Snow Park in Chongli, a ski resort backed by Malaysian investment, was also optimistic that China’s winter sports sector will register more robust growth after the Games.

The park, home to freestyle skiing and some snowboarding events during the Winter Games, is prepared to welcome more tourists in the future, with improved infrastructure and additional hotel beds built to accommodate the Olympic athletes, he said.

A growing number of people are also being employed at ice rinks and ski resorts.

Liu, the skiing coach, said she began skiing in 2015 in the outer suburbs of Beijing. The allure of the snow proved so irresistible that she eventually decided to become a full-time skiing coach.

The inflow of capital to the sector and rise in public enthusiasm has convinced her that skiing can also be pursued as a profession, she said.

Chai Hua, a 35-year-old skiing enthusiast from Beijing, said that from 2016 to 2019, she traveled to Chongli every year to indulge her passion. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meant she could not visit ski resorts in 2020 and last year.

With the 2022 Olympics rekindling her interest in winter sports, Chai said she actively encourages her two children to take to the slopes. She said her family is willing to spend 10,000 yuan annually to indulge its passion for snow sports.