Source: China Daily
China Daily, February 9 -- With the holding of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, ice and snow sports continue to heat up in China. Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" published an article on the 6th that China had previously proposed to achieve its commitment to drive 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports, and China has exceeded this goal. According to official data, as of October 2021, the number of participants in ice and snow sports in China has reached 346 million.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. This is the chinese delegation entering the opening ceremony. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
The article mentioned that in the past, due to the limitations of climatic conditions, China's ice and snow sports, especially snow sports, were more popular in the north. In recent years, however, more and more southerners have been clocking in to snow parks across the country in the winter, and some families are all ski enthusiasts.
The construction of ice and snow venues has been accelerated, and the facilities have been visibly improved
Since China's successful bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015, ski resorts and ice skating rinks have sprung up everywhere like mushrooms, and even Hainan, which has four seasons like summer, has many indoor ice rinks and "dry snow" ski resorts.
On February 6, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Freestyle Skiing Women's Snow Skills Final was held at The Genting Ski Park in Chongli, Zhangjiakou. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
According to data released by China's General Administration of Sport, as of the beginning of 2021, China has 654 standard ice rinks and 803 indoor and outdoor ski resorts of various types, an increase of 317% and 41% respectively over 2015. Some ski enthusiasts said that under the shareholder wind of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the facilities of domestic ski resorts have been visibly improved.
Chongli, the core area of the Zhangjiakou Race Area of the Beijing Winter Olympics, has built seven ski resorts, with a total of 169 ski slopes with a total length of 162 kilometers, of which 10 high-level ski slopes have passed international certification, and there are about 30,000 local people directly or indirectly engaged in the ice and snow industry and tourism services.
The cold door has become popular, and ice and snow sports have entered the lives of the masses
Yan Jingjing, a ski enthusiast, said: "In recent years, the ice and snow fever has also spread through social media such as Douyin, and everyone is 'sunning' skiing, and many people want to experience it. With the heating up of the new generation of ice and snow athletes such as Gu Ailing and Su Yiming, ice and snow sports are believed to become more and more popular. ”
On February 8, the champion Of China's Gu Ailing was awarded the medal at the ceremony. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
According to data from the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism of Zhangjiakou Chongli District, Chongli received 480,000 ski tourists in the snow season from 2015 to 2016, and in just four years, this number has doubled. In the 2018-2019 snow season, the seven major ski resorts in Chongli District received more than one million ski tourists for the first time.
In addition to skiing, ice sports such as figure skating, ice hockey and even curling, which were once relatively unpopular, are now more widely known in China. Xing Wei, executive deputy secretary general of the Beijing Ice Hockey Association, said that there are currently 4,000 ice hockey players registered with the association, and "conservative estimates show that the number of people who have been involved in ice hockey in Beijing for a long time is more than 8,000."
The article mentioned that when Yao Yunbo, an ice hockey player who participated in professional training in 2017, first started playing ice hockey, many people had no concept of ice hockey at all, and often encountered people asking him what he was doing with the club. But now it's different, and many people will ask him directly if he plays hockey.
"Ice and snow fever" has led to the growth of industrial scale
The article quoted a report released by Colliers International last month as saying that the market size of China's ice and snow industry was 117.7 billion yuan in 2013 and grew to 600 billion yuan by the end of 2020. The report predicts that starting in 2025, China's ice and snow industry will enter a mature period, and the industrial scale is expected to reach 1 trillion yuan.
On February 3, the ice hockey "Snow Boy" "rushed into" the field to clear the ice surface between matches. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
After the Winter Olympics drove the "ice and snow fever", some international ice and snow brands have successively entered China. Canadian hockey equipment brand Bauer set up a subsidiary in China last January, its first outside of North America and Europe. Jeffrey Seah, the company's general manager for Greater China, said in an interview: "China's goal of putting 300 million people on ice and snow is a huge market potential for us. ”
The Winter Olympics will promote the sustainable development of ice and snow sports in China
IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell said on the 7th that the venues of the Beijing Winter Olympics not only assume the function of event hosting, but also become the Olympic heritage, and continue to promote China's winter sports. He added: "Once the image of Chinese athletes appears on TV, there will be a lively discussion among Young People in China." China now has more than 300 million people participating in ice and snow sports, and Chinese audiences not only see their own athletes compete, but also have the opportunity to participate in winter sports. ”
The 2022 Spring Festival holiday ice and snow sports tour continues to be popular, and the Spring Festival set of the Year of the Tiger at Chengdu Xiling Snow Mountain Ski Resort. (Source: Xinhua News Agency)
Xie Guiping, general manager of Bauer Greater China, a Canadian ice hockey equipment brand, also believes that China has invested heavily in ice and snow sports hardware in recent years, and has gradually solved software problems such as venue facility maintenance, and began to train relevant talents. He said: "A Winter Olympics creates many possibilities, including the development of ice and snow culture and ice and snow industry, which will not end because the Winter Olympics turn the page... Many people may think that this will be a gust of wind, but we think that Now China does have better conditions and good momentum in developing these sports. ”