Once upon a time, it was trapped in the snow city in winter; now, the ice and snow are the golden mountains and silver mountains.
This is Chongli – known as "the most ideal natural skiing area in North China", where many snow competitions for the Beijing Winter Olympics are being held.
The change of the small city of Chongli reflects the process of the leapfrog development of China's ice and snow sports, and is a true portrayal of the Winter Olympics for the welfare of the people.
Many lovers of skiing for many years will have the same feeling: in recent years, more and more people like to ski.
This is certainly not an "illusion", whether from the national statistics or the number of snowers received by various ski resorts, in the few years that the Beijing Winter Olympics are approaching, the number of skiers in China has indeed ushered in a blowout.
Why are Chinese becoming more and more fond of skiing? In an interview with reporters, industry insiders gave a number of reasons:
Better and better ski facilities and convenience, the fun of skiing itself, the more and more fashionable cultural attributes of skiing in social communication... With a series of factors, skiing has become the next sports hit.
Young people who love skiing.
The number of ski enthusiasts has soared
Many friends who are not familiar with skiing may also notice in recent years that more and more people in the "circle of friends" are exposed to skiing.
Statistically, that's true. Especially after the successful bid for the 2015 Beijing Winter Olympics, the ski population has ushered in a wave of blowouts.
According to the 2020 White Paper on China's Ski Industry released in July 2021, in the 2020-2021 snow season (May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021), the number of ski trips in China reached 20.76 million, creating a record high so far.
In the 2019-2020 snow season, due to the epidemic, the number of ski trips in the season fell to 10.45 million, but then it rebounded and created a new high.
Historical data show that the number of ski trips in the 2007-2008 snow season was close to 5 million, and in the 2013-2014 snow season, it reached 10 million, an increase of 5 million in 6 years.
However, in the 2018-2019 snow season, the number of domestic ski trips soared to 20.6 million, compared with the 2013-2014 snow season, in just 5 years, the increase exceeded 10 million.
In an interview with reporters, Li Yongtai, executive vice president of Zhangjiakou Chongli Taiwu Ski Town, revealed that since the opening of Taiwu Ski Town in 2015, "the passenger flow of skiing has basically increased according to 30% per year." If it were not for the impact of the epidemic, the overall increase would have been even greater.
Zhang Litao, general manager of Fulong Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd., also told reporters that Chongli Fulong Ski Resort was put into operation in 2016, "the number of people we received in the first year was about 80,000 people, and this snow season, we have received about 170,000 people in the two months before the start of the snow season so far."
Try skiing, it's more convenient and comfortable
Why does skiing attract so many new enthusiasts? In the eyes of industry insiders, many people just didn't get the opportunity to get exposed to skiing before.
Nowadays, with the increase of domestic ski facilities and the improvement of convenience, there is almost no threshold for trying skiing, which naturally allows more people to enter the world.
According to statistics, as of 2020, the total number of ski resorts operating abroad in China was 715, although the relationship between the epidemic situation and the previous year's historical peak of 770 has decreased, but compared with 270 in 2010, there is still a huge increase of 165%. This means that it is getting easier and easier to find a place to ski.
After choosing a ski destination, the process of arriving at the ski slopes has become more and more convenient.
Zhangjiakou Chongli, which was selected as one of the beijing winter Olympic games, is naturally one of the biggest beneficiaries, and with the arrival of the Winter Olympics, a high-speed rail line connecting Beijing has been opened here, and a new highway has been built. As Zhang Litao said: "It only takes 40 or 50 minutes to get from Beijing by high-speed rail, which is very convenient, and there are two stations, Prince Edward Station and Chongli North Station." ”
"There are also two highways, if you drive, it takes more than two hours to come from the sixth ring road of Beijing, and the traffic arrival problem is solved, which is a very good thing for Chongli Market."
Of course, not only in Chongli, but also in other domestic ski resorts such as the northeast or Xinjiang, the transportation conditions for skiing are becoming more and more convenient. Coupled with the efforts of each ski resort to upgrade its own hardware facilities and service quality, this is naturally the best time for skiers.
Mr. Zhang, who opened a ski shop in Chongli and is also a ski enthusiast, has personally experienced the changes in the snow field: "The first snow field still used a car to pull guests to the mountain and then slide down, and then there was an electric drag fiber, a magic carpet, and later a cable car." ”
"The start of the cable car is non-enclosed, the speed is relatively slow, when the weather is cold, people go up to sit in a circle and freeze, and then there is a closed high-speed cable car, the facilities are getting better and better." He told reporters.
After contact with skiing, it is too easy to "fall"
Better and more convenient conditions undoubtedly greatly increase the "contact surface" of skiing for the general public, but there are naturally reasons why many people can really be "captured" by skiing.
In the eyes of ski instructors, the excitement and pleasure that skiing itself can bring is indeed addictive.
Shi Wei, who learned to ski from a local school in Chongli and became a senior coach at the Fulong Four Seasons Town Mountain Sports Institute after graduation, told reporters that skiing is definitely an exciting sport.
"Especially after the speed rises, the feeling is so cool, so it will make people linger." And skiers are more open, lively, and easy to get along with, and they will know more friends (through skiing) and be more comfortable to get along with. ”
Cui Yajie, principal of the Fulong Four Seasons Town Mountain Sports Academy, also said, "Even in the beginner road, you can see many enthusiasts showing off their skills and 'turning the sky full of flying'. Many people are because of the development of the ski market in recent years, in these years slowly began to learn, through a year or two, two or three years, the level has been greatly improved. ”
While many beginner enthusiasts have become enthusiasts, there are also more and more beginners coming to experience, as Cui Yajie said: "Groups such as family vacations and tourist vacations will come to experience, and the overall group (skiing) is getting bigger." ”
"People who love skiing will want to ski more and more, and then they will also drive people around them to ski, which is also a feature of the skiing program."
Outside of sports, skiing has become a fashion culture
Indeed, as Cui Yajie said, many ski enthusiasts are actually "pulled" into the world of skiing by the people around them, or learned about the skiing project from their friends, thus becoming interested.
Compared with a sport, with the continuous promotion and dissemination of domestic ice and snow culture, skiing has already possessed more cultural attributes, and this trend has naturally attracted the attention of many ski industry insiders.
"Skiing is a sport with a strong social attribute. Many people see someone in the circle of friends going skiing in winter, and there will be interaction between each other, which is a boost for skiing. Cui Yajie told reporters.
"Skiing is now not just a sport, it's part of some people's lives. Someone might work five days a week and then ski with friends on two days a weekend and chat and party together. Especially for today's young people, this is very attractive. ”
Zhang Litao also believes that after the dissemination of social media, the current social image of skiing is very dynamic, so it is more attractive: "Now most of the young people who ski, because skiing is a very fashionable thing, and many people (on the snow field) are also wearing very cool. It is both a sport and a communicative space. ”
Not only on the snow field, enthusiasts can show their skills, but also many people are willing to show their personality through the self-media platform: "Now skiing has gone beyond the sport itself, and it is indeed no longer the same as before." ”
Previously, Zhang Litao from Jilin was a professional ski jumper, and in his recollection, when he was an athlete, the concept of skiing was far from being popularized.
"It was very closed at that time, everyone didn't understand how skiing was, and when I went to the world in the 1980s, many Northeastern natives didn't have any concept of skiing."
"In the past, many ordinary people could not touch skiing, but now everyone knows about skiing, which is related to the prosperity of our lives, the increase in income, and the progress of society."
The North Ice expands south, expanding east and west
It is undeniable that in the process of skiing gradually becoming popular, the holding of the Beijing Winter Olympics is a great stimulating factor.
"For example, in the past, if it was said that ice and snow entered the campus, it was very difficult, because it involved safety issues, and now they are actively doing these things, and the school and the snow field are docked to let the children snow in winter, which is a change in social thinking." Zhang Litao said.
It is understood that in addition to the popularity at the youth level, some local governments will also come up with real money and silver subsidies to give skiers, so that the latter can ski at a more affordable price.
In addition, the popularization of skiing has also brought about a most direct result, that is, the original "main battlefield" in the north of the skiing, through years of publicity and promotion, attracted a large number of fans from the south.
In Li Yongtai's view, skiing actually has a natural attraction for southerners: "Tourism itself is hunting and differentiation, northerners go to the south, southerners go to the north, they all want to see some new and different things." ”
Nowadays, skiing is becoming more and more convenient, which greatly reduces the threshold for southerners to "taste the early", while the domestic snow field is equipped with rich supporting facilities, which is more attractive to beginners.
"A lot of children who go to school abroad even feel better when they come back to skiing than abroad, because the ski resorts abroad are not the same as our philosophy, some don't have so many service facilities, and even have to change clothes in the car, or there is no equipment rental, and there is no rich catering." Domestic snow fields have built a lot of surrounding facilities to ensure. ”
Coupled with the popularity of today's indoor ski resorts in the south, it is even more the opportunity to experience the doorstep of southerners.
"There are many indoor ski resorts in the south, which is exactly the initial stage of the ski resort, and it is very easy to guide the passenger flow." Li Yongtai said.
Zhang Litao also believes: "The emergence of the (southern) summer ski hall has brought great help, because the summer ski hall is large and is also a beginner snow track, and when these people practice in the museum, they will definitely want to 'release themselves' to the snow of nature to feel it, and go to the snow field to 'bright and live'." ”
"The indoor ski hall has cultivated a large number of basic skiers, which has played a decisive role in promoting the southern ski market."
The improvement of hardware facilities, the popularization of skiing in society, the spread of ski enthusiasts to the whole country... Stimulated and boosted by the Beijing Winter Olympics, skiing has ushered in a golden age of development.
"The development of every industry needs big events to stimulate, and the successful bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics is such a condition." Zhang Litao said, "Supporting facilities, reception capacity, venue facilities, including commercial formats and ecological environment ... The core elements of prosperity in the post-Winter Olympic era have been formed, and after the beijing Winter Olympics, people will definitely come to enjoy the fruits of the Winter Olympics, and we are full of expectations for the post-Winter Olympic era. (Reporter Pu Yaolei)
Source: The Paper