(Sports Focus) Skiing heats up across China

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Wang Rui has been planning for another skiing trip in the last one and half years.

The 40-year-old Wang, a lawyer based in Beijing, has put her skiing hobby on hold since the birth of her second child in 2016, but she never stopped missing the passion of the sport that she got to know 13 years ago.

"Skiing has become my lifestyle," said Wang. "I like the challenge, and being pushed to develop the courage to excel to my limit."

Wang and her husband fell in love with the sport so deeply that they decided to buy an apartment in Chongli, Zhangjiakou in order to spend more time at ski resorts there every winter. This investment paid off a few years later as Zhangjiakou, the city over 200 kilometers away from Beijing, became the co-host after Beijing was awarded the right to host 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

"We can see that skiing is getting more and more popular in China in recent years. More and more friends around me are talking about and going skiing," Wang added. "When our second child gets a little bit older, I'd like to go skiing with them again."

Wang has been to various domestic skiing resorts including Chongli's Yunding, Beijing's Nanshan and Jundushan. She spent around 600 US dollars a year in skiing when she was active.

"I like Yunding most, because it's very big and they've got good slopes for advanced skiers. When I go back to skiing, I would like to try some fine ski resorts abroad," she said.

The numbers of ski fields and people taking part in the sport have surged since Beijing secured the hosting right of the 2022 Games on July 31, 2015. At the end of 2017, there are already 703 ski fields across China, compared to 568 in 2015. Meanwhile, the number of annual skiers has risen from about 12.5 million in 2015 to around 17.5 million by 2017, according to the "China Ski Industry Whitepaper" published by insiders.

"The victory of Beijing and Zhangjiakou in their bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games has been a milestone in China's ski industry and a huge boost to the development of snow sports," said Wei Qinghua, co-author of the "China Ski Industry Whitepaper." "Let's take Chongli's Wanlong ski resort as an example, their annual attendance has risen from about 60,000 five years ago to 400,000 last year," he remarked.

Zhao Lanju, general manager of the Songhuahu Ski Resort in the northeastern province of Jilin, said that attendance at his ski resort reached 340,000 in the 2016-2017 ski season, compared to 60,000 in 2014-2015.

In addition to traditional ski destinations in northwestern China, southwestern Chinese provinces including Guizhou, Chongqing are also hit by skiing heat.

On January 23, World Snow Day events were held in Guizhou's Liupanshui city, which now boasts four ski fields.

"It's the first time that I have taken part in a snow event in a southern city," said Sun Yan, a skier who came a long way from northeastern Heilongjiang province to participate in an invitational youth competition. "The weather is very good and the snow is soft, it's a very special skiing experience for me."

Despite the quick development of skiing across China, only a small number of the participants are regular skiers or huge fans like Wang Rui, while 75.2 percent of the ski resort visitors are rookies or one-time consumers.

"The ski industry in China is still in its early stages. We have a lot of work to do to better improve the experience of the skiers and encourage them to come back again," said Wei Qinghua. "At the same time, we believe that the ski industry in China has great potential and a great future. Less than one percent of our total population tried skiing last year, the potential market is huge." Enditem