Spurred by Winter Olympics, more Chinese hit the slopes

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The positive impact of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games is being felt far outside the "closed loop" bubble, with almost 25 percent of Chinese people enjoying the ice and snow sports as the Olympic athletes.

China promised to engage 300 million people in winter sports when it was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics, and the goal was achieved in advance.

Over 346 million of Chinese people have participated in winter sports training, amateur or professional competitions, or winter sport leisure activities, according to a survey released last month by the National Bureau of Statistics.

On Xiaohongshu, a lifestyle-focused social media platform which is popular among Chinese youngsters, ice and snow sports have been selected as one of the top ten life trends in both 2021 and 2022. These once minority sports have become fashionable among Chinese young people.

The China Ski Industry White Book published in July last year showed the same trend. Ski resort visits in China have increased three-fold since 2010, reaching over 20.6 million in 2019, the last year before COVID-19 control measures cut visitor numbers.

To make skiing more accessible to the public, hundreds of new facilities have been built over the past several years. As of 2020, China had 803 ski resorts, up from 568 in 2015. There are also 654 ice rinks across the country, an increase of more than 310 percent from 2015.

In northeast China's Jilin Province, where winter sports enjoy a long history thanks to its suitable climate, skiing resorts always see long queues of consumers at night. "Skiing at night is good for releasing pressure from work, and I come here at least twice a week," said Zhang Tian, a skiing fan.

Winter sports have also been added to the curriculums of over 2,000 schools nationwide.

"The school's facilities for winter sports are constantly improving, and students are becoming more enthusiastic about winter sports," said Xie Yumei, a PE teacher at Hailar No.7 Middle School in Inner Mongolia.

China has also made efforts to promote winter sports in areas without favorable natural conditions.

Facilities such as indoor rinks and skiing treadmills are put into use to satisfy the needs of people living in the South. The indoor skiing resort in Haikou City, Hainan Province, which opened two years ago, are often filled with skiing fans on weekends.

"We provide skiing lessons for consumers, and will bring our students to the north during the winter holiday to ski on real snow," said Zhang Youjie, operation executive of the resort.

In northwest China's Ningxia, especially on its loess plateau, heavy snow is also rarely seen due an extremely dry climate. Making use of a long, freezing winter and mountains, the local government has supported companies to establish many skiing resorts and outdoor rinks for popularizing winter sports.

"I was so excited when I skied for the first time, and I often bring my daughter to play in the skiing resort in our village," said Tian Dalong, a farmer living in Huanggu Village, Tongxin County in Ningxia. "Thanks to the Olympics, we can also enjoy these cool sports."