01
Before 2004, Chongli was the most common of China's thousands of less wealthy counties. The locals mainly make a living from agriculture and mining, and little is known about this northern county.
The situation changed in 2004.
This winter, with the opening of the Wanlong Ski Resort in the east of Chongli, this quiet small county town became lively.
Wanlong is not chongli's first ski resort. As early as 1996, China's first ski champion Shan Zhaojian built the first local ski resort in Chongli, saibei ski resort.
However, the infrastructure of the Saibei Snow Resort is poor, and the ski equipment used comes from second-hand equipment donated by international friends; there is no cable car and towing, and the ski resort unloads the back of a 212 jeep and welds it to the bench to transport skiers.
With the opening of Wanlong, Chongli has its first modern professional ski resort.
Wanlong phase I will open and build 5 ski slopes for beginner, middle and advanced, and beginner, intermediate and advanced skiers can find suitable ski slopes here;
The skis configured in the ski resort are not the latest foreign carbines, or high-end brands such as Solomon;
Wanlong also introduced large-scale snowmaking systems from abroad, in conjunction with Chongli's unique natural snowfall, the ski resort is open from November to April of the following year, whether it is the opening hours, snow period or snow quality, is the best in China.
Wanlong kicked off Chongli's transformation into an ice and snow city, and such a modern ski resort began with a crazy idea.
02
In the Spring Festival of 2003, Luo Li, who was still the executive vice president of Hollywood, was dragged to slide once in the snow.
After learning the basic corners and brakes, others are "feverish", he is "crazy". That spring, he soaked in the snow all day, played all over the country's ski resorts, and ran to the Yongpyeong Ski Resort in South Korea. Seeing the bustling crowds at Yongpyeong Ski Resort, Luo Li felt that skiing was a good business.
After returning to China, the idea of driving a snow field of his own lingered in his mind.
In May of that year, he dragged a group of people and ran all over Xishan, Xiangshan, Miaofeng and Wuling Mountain, trying to find a place to build a snow field, but none of them were suitable.
A month later, he stood on the top of Chongli's Safflower Beam mountain and excitedly told his peers that he was going to build a decent ski resort here.
Chongli is located in the transition zone between the Inner Mongolian Plateau and the North China Plain, and in winter, it is the place where warm and humid air meets cold air, which is prone to rainfall and snowfall. In winter, there is not much rain and snow in Zhangjiakou, 50 kilometers away, and Chongli often closes the mountain with heavy snow. And the safflower beam is the highest point in North China, where the vertical drop is 550 meters, suitable for challenging and interesting pistes.
Chongli scenery
Chongli also wanted to develop the ice and snow industry, when Luo Li was walking on the street, and banners of "vigorously develop ice and snow tourism" could be seen everywhere.
Combining several factors, he decided that this was the most suitable place to open a snow field.
A month later, he took the 4 million yuan that Hollywood had invested, invited a technical team from South Korea, and started work on a barren mountain.
People around him are not optimistic about his ski resort, they all ridicule him, you love to drink milk, raise a cow, you have to build a pasture.
A few months later, Luo Lijian built 2 ropeways and 3 slides on this "nothing" barren mountain. Although everything is still in ruins, standing on the top of the mountain, Luo Li still sees the future, and the snow trails wind down the Red Flower Liang Mountain like a dragon, so the ski resort is named "Wanlong".
The brothers who did not believe that he could build a snow field in the barren mountains were all impressed by him.
03
After the opening of Wanlong, throughout the winter, there were more than a dozen people skiing every day, and there were more than three hundred people during the Spring Festival.
But when Luo Li ran to the ski resort in Beijing, it was a different situation: there were 300 to 500 people in Nanshan on weekdays, 4,000 or 5,000 people on weekends, and 100 or 200 people in Jundushan on weekdays.
He pondered carefully, "I found it broken at this time, I fell into the pit, too early."
At the beginning, with all enthusiasm, Luo Li plunged into it, but he did not know the depth of the ski industry.
In some countries where the ski market is mature, people ski as simple as running, but this has to be cultivated and passed down by the market for hundreds of years.
China's overall sports market is still in its infancy. Skiing is a niche sport even more so, not only started late, the market is still small, snow friends are mainly beginners, and there are few middle and senior snow friends. It is no wonder that Beijing's junior ski resorts are very popular, while Wanlong, which is dominated by middle and high-grade ski slopes, has no one.
Not only that, most of the people who play skiing are the middle class with certain spending power, China's ski resources are concentrated in the north, except for Beijing, most of the northern regions are relatively backward in the economy. Most of the people who are willing to play and can afford to play are concentrated in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta.
In other words, there are too few snow friends to support a snow field as big as Wanlong, and the market still needs decades or even hundreds of years of cultivation.
After understanding the current situation of the industry, Luo Li changed his business strategy. Since there are few snow friends, he proposed that "not ask a thousand people to come once, but ask one person to come a thousand times", and take improving the user return rate as Wanlong's business goal.
In those years, people who went skiing in Wanlong often met a middle-aged man dressed in white with a stubble face, who liked to chat with people. Some of Wanlong's regular customers know that he is Luo Li, the boss of Wanlong.
In Luo Li's view, skiing is essentially a service industry, and serving customers well will naturally form word-of-mouth transmission and bring repeat customers.
Since 2003, every snow season, he will soak in Wanlong like a customer, go to the snow park for a trip, or go to the restaurant to serve dishes to see what other places in the snow field need to be improved. When he goes to a foreign ski resort to investigate, he will also photograph the details of the room furnishings and soft decoration and bring it back for reference.
Many of Wanlong's services are developed by Luoli after discovering the needs from the user's point of view. In recent years, there has been a saying in the global ski circle: european mountains, Japanese snow, and Wanlong meals. Catering has become a sign of Wanlong.
Wanlong Restaurant
Even Luo Li himself said that Wanlong has today's industry status, relying not on mountainous and natural snowfall resources, but on the good experience around snow friends to create Wanlong.
Of course, there is also the help of the historical process. In particular, on September 5, 2018, after the State General Administration of Sport announced the "Implementation Outline for Driving 300 Million People to Participate in "Ice and Snow Sports" (2018-2022)", the ski market has accelerated and become hotter.
But after the epidemic came, Luo Li's profit expectations were disappointed again.
04
From 2004 to 2008, Luo Li has been living in fear: the snow field has lost money year after year, like a bottomless pit every year, relying on selling bread to make money for blood transfusions and bank loans to survive, and I don't know when it will be a head.
This fear continued into 2008. One day, he suddenly thought of one thing: since Wanlong landed in Chongli in 2003, the ski industry has developed in the local area, driving Chongli's employment, catering, and hotels. Local people no longer go out to work, by opening hotels and restaurants, can have an income of 50,000-60,000 yuan a year; after the highway is connected to Chongli, snow friends in North China can enjoy the experience of international first-class ski resorts in China.
Thinking like this, Luo Li felt that he had inadvertently done something to benefit one party.
He suddenly became enlightened, and found that making money from the snow field was a matter of the year of the monkey, and he was no longer anxious, only focusing on doing a good job in the snow field, taking care of the staff, and serving the customers well.
From 2003 to the present, Luo Li has invested a total of 2.3 billion yuan before and after, like Yugong Moving Mountain, little by little, Wanlong has been built into its current appearance:
32 pistes with a total length of 36.9 km, including 22 advanced trails, 6 intermediate trails and 4 beginner trails, satisfying all the dreams of skiing from beginners to enthusiasts;
Seven cable cars and three magic carpets run between the Safflower Beam Mountains, carrying a total of 14,530 passengers per hour, as well as the Wanlong Ski School for public tourists, and four 1,800-bed hotels.
Today's Wanlong is already a well-known overseas "powder snow paradise", in winter, it is a world-class ski resort, and in summer, it is also a comfortable and pleasant ecological summer resort.
Wanlong has been moving towards a world-class ski resort for more than a decade, and has also witnessed the miracle of Chongli's development from a state-level poverty-stricken county to a world-class ice and snow city. In this small town, one in every 5 people is engaged in ice and snow work.
Luo Li has also gradually changed from a ski enthusiast to a stickler and promoter of the ski industry: not only does he unreservedly share the experience and value concept accumulated by Wanlong with more peers, but also actively solves problems and contributes to the development of the entire ice and snow industry.
More and more forces are also converging on China's ice and snow industry to continue to break the ice and help the development of the industry.
Recently, Luo Li participated in a major event of great significance for the development of the ice and snow industry, and became the tasting officer of Shuijingfang Ice and Snow Brand, the designated wine for ice and snow in China, and helped the development of ice and snow together.
In addition to Luo Li and other ice and snow tasting officers, Shuijingfang also invited Han Xiaopeng, world champion of freestyle skiing aerial skills, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, world champions of figure skating, to serve as ice and snow brand ambassadors, together to popularize ice and snow sports and culture, and help the development of national fitness and ice and snow.
Shuijingfang's 600-year-old living heritage further integrates brand culture with the spirit of ice and snow, highlights cultural self-confidence, and helps ice and snow sports; pays tribute to the spirit of ice and snow that is enterprising and transcendent, peaceful and inclusive with the pursuit of excellence of "Treasure Life", so that the world can see the inheritance and development of ice and snow culture.
The limited edition collector's ice and snow edition launched by Shuijingfang innovates in packaging design, integrates many ice and snow elements, outlines the cool and heroic posture of ice and snow athletes, highlights the beauty of ice and snow and the sports spirit of ice and snow sports' continuous pursuit of excellence, and celebrates every glorious moment worthy of collection!
Paying tribute to the spirit of ice and snow with fine wine, through China's long-standing liquor culture, let the ice and snow culture enter and take root in more people's hearts, and what Shuijingfang strives for is exactly what Luo Li wants to work hard.
Timeless, extremely pure, adult self-sufficient, not only good at self-challenge and struggle, but also know how to taste and share life, which is the spirit that Shuijingfang wants consumers to taste, and it is also the spirit that Luo Li wants to share.
From 2003 to 2022, it is the 20 years that Luo Li has adhered to the industry, and it is also the 20 years of the industry from the bud to the spring. The 2022 ice and snow festival is coming, Luo Li has already felt the breath of spring, he believes that after the ice and snow event, it will be spring and warm flowers, thousands of purples and reds.
At this moment, Shuijingfang is also looking forward to it.