China News Service Beijing, February 9 Title: Is ice and snow sports exclusive to the north?
Li Jing, a reporter for China News Weekly
The Beijing Winter Olympics have kicked off, and people are watching the events as a new way of recreation and fitness. When the beautiful vision of "driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports" gradually becomes a reality, will ice and snow sports still be exclusive to the north? Can the popularity and development of ice and snow sports in the private sector provide impetus for China's professional sports, and what opportunities will it bring to China's ice and snow industry? China News Service's "East and West Question" interpreted this through interviews with relevant people.
Play ice and snow without dividing north and south
As of 2021, there are 13 indoor ice rinks in Shanghai, 8 in Wuhan, 6 in Shenzhen... Ice training clubs, which have accumulated enough experience and resources in Beijing, have gone south.
Hou Minghui, secretary general of the Beijing Skating Association, believes that there are currently dozens of figure skating clubs in China, such as Century Star, Champion, All-Star, and China Resources, of which 80% of the large chain clubs are from Beijing. Century Star is the first chain of ice training clubs to go out of Beijing, and has set up 20 branches across the country since 2003. The advanced training and management experience of these mature clubs has further driven the skating fever.
In December 2021, children and teenagers play hockey at an ice rink in Beijing. Photo by China News Service reporter Hou Yu
Compared to figure skating, ice hockey is more unpopular in southern cities. In 2017, Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Ice Hockey Club was established in Longgang. Initially, parents in Hong Kong and Macau, who were exposed to ice hockey earlier than the local citizens of Shenzhen, seemed to be more interested in their Olympic standard ice rinks, and would lead their children to practice ice hockey on weekends. Du Congfei, deputy general manager of the club, believes that shenzhen people's awareness and enthusiasm for ice sports have increased significantly since a year or two ago.
In Beijing, more and more schools are placing classes on ice and snow fields. According to statistics, in recent years, more than 460,000 primary and secondary school students in Beijing have been on ice and snow, at the end of 2021, there have been 200 ice and snow sports characteristic schools, the number of participants in the Winter Games for primary and secondary school students that have been held for 6 sessions has increased from 500 to more than 1,700 people, and the competition projects have developed from fun projects such as ice puzzles and snow climbing to short track speed skating, figure skating, curling, ice hockey, alpine skiing, snowboarding and other professional projects.
In the southern cities that are far away from ice and snow, more and more "ice dolls" have also been born. In the early years, Shenzhen Kunlun Hongxing Hockey Club would carry out free experience courses among college, middle and primary school students every year, but the number of students who eventually stayed on the "ice" was limited. From 2021 onwards, southern children's interest in ice has exceeded the past, the school has begun to establish cooperation with clubs, ice hockey has entered the classroom, schools have formed ice hockey teams, and middle school students and college students have started regular ice hockey training.
Students of Guiyang No. 3 Experimental Middle School learn "skiing" on an indoor ski simulator. The school offers ice and snow sports courses, mainly "indoor skiing" and "land curling", and each class will attract a large number of students to experience and learn. China News Service reporter Qu Honglun photographed
According to the statistics of the "Century Star", the number of people participating in ice training in the South is increasing. In Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places, the revenue ratio of regularly trained children to individual customers who experience ice has reached 55, while in Beijing, where the figure skating market is mature, the proportion is 64 to 73, and southern cities are gradually catching up with Beijing. After the slogan of "300 million people on ice and snow" was put forward, in addition to the explosive growth in the number of people on ice in Beijing, other cities have also risen significantly.
Civilians can also build a "regular army"
There are three types of ice sports children. Most children are designed to keep fit, or to add a hobby. There are also some well-educated parents who know that figure skating and ice hockey are popular sports in North America, and hope that their children will master this skill and prepare for future study abroad, which will not only increase the admission rate, but also integrate into the local society faster. A small number of children show great understanding and talent in training, and have the hope of developing into professional players of the national team.
In recent years, the latter two types of children have increased significantly, and this quantitative change has brought about a qualitative change in the skating market to some extent. For example, in the Century Star Club, once outstanding amateur players get a place in the Beijing Competition, the club will train, not only training, equipment does not charge, but also according to the level of subsidies, provide teachers, venue protection, support the development of players to the professional road, send children to the national team.
In January 2022, the members of the short track speed skating team of the Dongcheng District Sports School in Beijing trained. Photo by China News Service reporter Jiang Qiming
At the 2014 National Men's Junior Ice Hockey Championship, the Beijing team, dominated by ordinary middle school students and "little returnees", defeated two professional ice hockey teams from the northeast in succession and won the championship with a total victory record, which is considered to be a landmark event in the history of the development of Beijing youth ice hockey. Ordinary children who play in clubs begin to defeat the "regular army" within the system.
The development of ice sports in the folk is providing a worthy sample for Chinese professional sports, and perhaps contributing a new professional development path.
Yukisuke Takashi takes off the "poverty cap"
Entering the snow season, posting a carpool to Chongli post on the Little Red Book, you can receive seven or eight messages in half an hour, not only carpooling, but also people taking the initiative to ask if they want to fight together for personal training.
Ice sports are absolutely dominated by children and teenagers, and skiing attracts mostly young adults. For them, skiing is a way to decompress, with a sense of accomplishment in conquering nature, and at the same time an important way to socialize and meet more like-minded friends.
The popularity of skiing is inseparable from the success of the Winter Olympic bid. Wen Mengying, deputy director of training at Chongli Fulong Mountain Sports Institute, was a professional skier 10 years ago, and in her impression, before bidding for the Winter Olympics, the public had no concept of skiing, skiing has always existed in the form of competitive sports, and the domestic well-known ski resort is only Heilongjiang's "Yabuli", which is far away from ordinary people.
Chongli's first and China's first fully open ski resort, Wanlong Ski Resort, was built in 2003, followed by a number of large-scale ski resorts such as Duolemeidi and Genting, but there are almost no supporting facilities, and ski lovers can only live in local farmers' homes at night.
Chongli Wanlong Ski Resort, the public experience the sport of skiing. Photo by Zhai Yujia, a reporter from China News Service
The change began in 2013. In November, Beijing announced a joint bid with Zhangjiakou to host the Winter Olympics. The following year, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development strategy and Zhangjiakou City's policy of vigorously developing the tourism industry were promoted to help Chongli take off the hat of "poor county". In 2015, the first snow season after the successful bid for the Winter Olympics, nearly 2.5 million people skied in Zhangjiakou, an increase of 31% year-on-year, and the number of snow resorts around Beijing increased from 22 to 32.
In order to adapt to the surge in crowds and the increasingly high level of snow friends, in 2021, a number of snow resorts in Beijing have undergone software and hardware upgrades: Jiayuguan Snow Field will widen the entire ski track, adjust the slope, restore the advanced road, the length of 600 meters; Nanshan Ski Resort will increase investment in the night ski, and the night ski track will increase from 10 to 17.
In 2016, the Fulong Four Seasons Town Tourist Resort was completed in Chongli, and skiing was connected with leisure and vacation. Cui Yajie, dean of Fulong Mountain Sports College, believes that the positioning of "Fulong" is a destination-type ski resort, which is good-looking, fun and has cultural connotations, and the customer base is mainly parent-child families and young people, and the purpose of training is to popularize and promote skiing.
Ski enthusiasts enjoy snow sports at Chongli Fulong Ski Resort. Photo by Zhai Yujia, a reporter from China News Service
At present, China's ski resorts are still dominated by tourist experience skis and suburban learning ski resorts, and Wu Bin, vice chairman of the Beijing Ski Association, defines the Chinese ski market as the world's largest primary ski market. In 2000, there were only 50 ski resorts in the country, and in 2019, it has increased to 770, and the total number of skiers has increased from 10.3 million in 2014 to 20.76 million in 2021. The urban level of the ski population is distributed in a stepwise manner, with nearly 60% of them gathered in first-tier and new first-tier cities, and 43.3% of skiers with a monthly income of more than 10,000.
Hou Minghui, secretary general of the Beijing Skating Association, lamented that the rapid development of ice and snow sports is inseparable from the effect of the Winter Olympics and the promotion of policies, and it is also the result of the expansion of the middle class after the increase in the income level of Chinese.
"Ice and snow fever" has spawned new industries
Ice and snow sports are called "noble sports" is not unreasonable, figure skating, ice hockey, skiing, no matter which one needs to have a certain consumption power. Roughly estimated, the cost of a child learning figure skating is 30,000 to 40,000 yuan (RMB, the same below), and the annual expenditure of ice hockey protectors is 50,000 to 60,000, and if you want better equipment, it may exceed 100,000. If you want to go professional, the cost will be higher.
The consumption of skiing is also not cheap, even if it is entry-level ski boots, ski clothes, skis, the price of a complete set is close to 3,000 yuan. The price of ski training, even if it is a collective small class teaching, a full-day teaching costs 500 yuan.
China's ice and snow sports have gradually entered the homes of ordinary people, driving the development and upgrading of the entire ice and snow industry. The "China Ice and Snow Tourism Development Report (2022)" released by the China Tourism Research Institute estimates that from 2021 to 2022, the number of ice and snow leisure tourists in China will reach 305 million, and the income of ice and snow leisure tourism is expected to reach 323.3 billion yuan.
On November 27, 2021, the 15th Xinjiang Winter Tourism Industry Trade Expo opened in Fuyun County, Altay Region, Xinjiang, and the new ski clothes attracted visitors. Photo by Liu Xin, a reporter of China News Service
Jingdong's "Double 11" sales data in 2021 shows that orders for snow clothing, snowboards, ski goggles, ice and snow tourism and other ice and snow categories have shown explosive growth. Ski clothing turnover, snowboard orders, ski goggles orders increased by 270%, 590% and 300% year-on-year, respectively, and ski self-operated orders increased by 23 times year-on-year.
The development of the domestic market has led to the branding of domestic ski products, and Chinese brands have begun to go to sea. According to data from AliExpress, Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce platform, in the fourth quarter of 2021, overseas sales of Chinese ski products increased by more than 60% year-on-year, and overseas sales of domestic ski helmets rose 15 times. In 2021, consumers in 100 countries and regions around the world purchased Chinese ski equipment on AliExpress, from Iceland in the north to Chile in the south. The scientific and technological concepts brought by ice and snow sports are also constantly upgrading, and technological innovation products such as simulated ice, dry snow, and simulators continue to appear. Between 2014 and 2020, the number of ice and snow-related businesses quadrupled.
Sarah Lewis, who has been the secretary general of the International Ski Federation for 20 years, said in an interview last year that the "300 million people on the ice" plan will have a huge impact on the world's ice and snow market, not only means that there will be more ice and snow enthusiasts in the future, but also benefiting from equipment manufacturers and ice and snow tourism practitioners.
Behind the increasing number of ice and snow enthusiasts and the continuous upgrading of data, China's ice and snow industry is ushering in a golden opportunity period for development. (End)
Source: China News Network