On the 26th, the Beijing Winter Olympics ushered in the opening countdown of 100 days. Since Beijing and Zhangjiakou won the right to host the 24th Winter Olympics in 2015, all parts of China have made high-quality efforts in the fields of ice and snow sports, culture, tourism, industry and other fields, and more and more Chinese have begun to form a "frozen relationship" because of the Winter Olympics.
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics ushered in a 100-day countdown to the opening. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Hu Xingyu)
"Ice and Snow Enlightenment"
On October 18, the Beijing Winter Olympics fire was successfully collected in Greece, and Li Jiajun, a famous Chinese short track speed skater, participated in the transmission of the fire in ancient Olympia. Li Jiajun, 46, is China's first male athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics. At the end of the 1980s, his parent, Chunshi Pingquan Elementary School, became a mirror of China's ice and snow education at that time.
At that time, the students of Hiraizumi Elementary School had to bring two lunch boxes to school every day, one for rice and one for ice, and the first thing they did after arriving at school was to fasten the ice in the lunch box on the playground. Three weeks later, the jagged ice cubes formed on a large scale, and the teachers took advantage of the cold night to water and file, and a campus ice rink was "completed".
In The Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin Province, students of the Second Experimental Primary School in Jilin City practiced the sideways movement of the slope under the guidance of a ski instructor. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Chang
More than 30 years later, more and more cities have begun to promote ice and snow education, and ice and snow resources are gradually pouring into the classroom.
Just after the frost fell, 11-year-old small-town girl Jin Sixu began to look forward to the arrival of winter. "I really like skiing and I look forward to getting snow early." Jin Si continued to put on a ski suit and snowboard at home, showing reporters plow turns, half-plough swings and other actions.
Jin Sixu's skiing initiation came from the Soden Station Town Center Primary School in Chuanying District, Jilin City. In 2016, this remote township primary school ushered in a ski lesson that "I could not have imagined before". The school playground has a 300-meter-long running track, which becomes a "piste" after the snow season. Sha Zhisheng, the principal, said that the school added ski lessons in the winter, one per week per class, and all the staff participated, "even if the children's small faces are frozen red, they are not willing to leave the class."
Students of Jilin No. 2 Experimental Primary School experience one-legged snow skiing in ski class. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Chang
Over the years, relying on natural resource endowments and the foundation of project development in the northeast region, the sports and education departments have extensively carried out a series of activities such as "millions of teenagers on the ice and snow" and "ice and snow into school". Wang Fuhai, director of the Youth Sports Department of the Jilin Provincial Sports Bureau, introduced that 557 provincial ice and snow sports characteristic schools have been built in the province, and the skating halls and outdoor ski resorts have increased from 5 and 26 in 2015 to the current 15 and 50, and more than 400 natural ice rinks are used every year.
Children who planted ice and snow dreams were constantly surprised: indoor snow fields, dry snow fields and other venues were put into use, so that skiing was no longer exclusive to winter; some cities set the first week of winter vacation in primary and secondary schools as "snow holidays"; Winter Olympic champions Zhou Yang and Li Jianrou became public welfare promotion ambassadors, and went to the campus to guide children's skills hand in hand...
"Children are so happy now than when I was a kid!" I am looking forward to the future of ice and snow sports in China. Li Jiajun sighed.
"Ice and snow atmosphere"
In 1980, in Lake Placid, the Chinese sports delegation embarked on its first winter Olympic tour, and the flag bearer waving the five-star red flag at the opening ceremony was Zhao Weichang, a famous speed skater in Changchun. Zhao Weichang, 71 years old this year, recalled that all 28 participants in China ranked in the top 8 in the 5 events in which they participated, and everyone deeply experienced the gap in popularity with ice and snow sports powers.
Zhao Weichang, taken at his home in Changchun City on March 30, 2021, has in his hand a photo of a Chinese delegation entering the opening ceremony of the 13th Winter Olympics in 1980 (left) and Zhao Weichang at the men's 1000m speed skating competition at the 13th Winter Olympics in 1980 (right). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Chang
"In the past, people in many provinces in China lacked experience in ice and snow, let alone participating in ice skating." Zhao Weichang said that even in northeast China, there is no atmosphere of ice and snow sports life like in Europe and North America, and the people are more accustomed to "cat winter", resulting in a narrow range and a small base of "ice and snow population".
Nowadays, ice and snow sports are heating up, and many provinces that have not fully utilized ice and snow resources have begun to build ice rinks and snow fields. Jilin, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other places have continuously consolidated the foundation of natural ice and snow.
Sun Chuan's family lives in Shenzhen and is ready to take annual leave next month to come to the northeast to "slip up and be happy". As a "migratory bird", he has "flown" to the northeast every snow season in recent years. He showed reporters a WeChat group, and many of the people in the group were Guangdong snow friends who planned to "open the board" and took place.
The opening match of the Super Fixed Point Ski Open, one of the 7th National Popular Ice and Snow Season series of activities, was held in The Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Chang
More "near the water tower" are the people of the northeast. At the Jilin City Gymnasium Skating Rink, Liu Wen, deputy director of the Training and Competition Department of the Sports Bureau, showed reporters a one-week schedule - every ice session was full. "If you don't consider labor costs, the venue has to be queued until the early hours of the morning." He said.
In recent years, under the dividends released by policies such as the "Opinions on Vigorously Developing Ice and Snow Sports with the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as an Opportunity", China's ice and snow demographic structure has undergone significant changes, and the scale has accelerated. With the arrival of the Flame of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China's enthusiasm for ice and snow will be further ignited.
"Ice and Snow Opportunities"
The size of the shoes can be adjusted, and you can ski and skate... The equipment, called the short ice and snow ski, will debut at the "Bird's Nest" in 2020 and quickly become the "net red" in the ice and snow carnival activities of primary and secondary school students in Beijing.
From the initial "soil invention" to the "popular model" of the campus, it embodies the painstaking efforts of the ice and snow equipment research and development and sports teaching team.
"The number of snow lovers is increasing, and we want to develop a ski ride that is not limited by the venue." Qu Bo, a member of the research and development team from Jilin Province, introduced that the first test of the water after the sample came out in 2017 was "hit the head" - the athletes slid slowly after putting on it, and the equipment failure was many. The team did not give up, they are optimistic about the blue ocean market of China's ice and snow equipment manufacturing industry.
Ski enthusiasts ski in the Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Chang
Hire experts to look for faults, improve devices, re-test tens of thousands of times... Half a year later, the question was replaced by likes. After the success of the project, the team began to target the multi-purpose snowmobile for technical research.
In recent years, the "ice and snow map" is no longer limited to local areas. Jilin is building the "World's Golden Latitude Belt of Ice and Snow", Heilongjiang is upgrading the "China No. 1 Ice and Snow Tourism Route", and Cities such as Chongqing, Nanjing, and Wuhan are also exploring the off-season ski industry.
Recently, Changchun Bainingdun Sporting Goods Equipment Company is stepping up the production of new orders. General Manager Wang Yang is a retired skater who started his business from a small workshop of tens of square meters to a large-scale enterprise today. At present, Wang Yang is preparing for the participation of the Jilin Ice and Snow Industry Expo - this is the country's first snow-themed expo, which has been held for 5 consecutive sessions since 2016, attracting nearly 2,000 participating brands from 27 countries and regions and 15 provinces, with a total on-site transaction volume of 750 million yuan.
The 2020 China Changchun Jingyuetan Vaasa International Ski Festival and the 2020 International Snow Federation Cross-Country Skiing China Tour Changchun Station Competition were held in Changchun. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Chang
"The ice and snow world is also a 'golden mountain and silver mountain.'" Bringing 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports will usher in an unprecedented golden period of opportunity for China's ice and snow industry. Wang Yang said.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Zhang Wu Text Editor: Yang Rong
Source: Author: Xinhua News Agency