Experts hail good quality snow at Chongli

With a little more than a month left before the 2022 Winter Games are awarded, some ski industry experts on Tuesday spoke highly of snow resources at Zhangjiakou, the co-bidder with Beijing.

Beijing 2022 assembled these experts to talk about the climate conditions in Zhangjiakou's Chongli where cross country, freestyle and other skiing events would be held, and the experts agreed the snow for the skiing events won't be a problem.

"There's absolutely no problem with snow in Chongli, which is of high quality," said Wei Qinghua, a top resort designer in China's ski industry. "Chongli can definitely host world class snow events now."

The local government began to develop the skiing market since the first piste was built in 1996. In the past decade, 82 skiing pistes that totaled 69 kilometers long have been completed, attracting millions of skiers from Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China.

Wei is now working for two of Chongli's biggest resorts, Genting and Wanlong, which would host Olympic events.

He believes that Chongli's long skiing season and unique microclimate have made it a world famous ski resort.

Wei also added that the area's cold, dry winters are well suited to grooming and maintaining world-class slopes.

"Recent years have seen it attract members of the Japanese and South Korean national ski teams who used to travel all the way to Europe to train," said Song Zhiyong, deputy general manager of the Genting resort.

Wakatsuki Hitoshi, deputy director of the Japanese Ski Association alpine skiing department, said Chongli has been listed as a professional training base for Japanese skiers.

"The weather and snow in Chongli is ideal for both training and competitions," Hitoshi said.

The Japanese's opinions were echoed by Ante Simonic, the former Vice Premier of Croatia and Croatian ambassador to China from 2008 to 2013.

"The snow is good, the skiing piste is nice. Chongli boasts of high quality snow and the best skiing coaches, so welcome to Chongli for skiing fun," said Simonic, also a former Croatian rowing champion.

Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Olympics, is seeking to become the first city to host both summer and winter games. The International Olympic Committee will select the host city on July 31 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Endi