Winter sports boom across China in first snow season after Beijing 2022

Participants take part in the all-round competition of the first Xinjiang Winter Games at a scenic area in Fuhai county, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Jan. 27, 2023. (People’s Daily Online/Aerdake Baisihan)

People across China have been taking part in various ice and snow activities in the 2022-2023 ice and snow season, the first after the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Chinese people have been flocking to Beijing 2022 competition venues to take part in winter sports. They can enjoy ice and snow activities at nearly 100 ski slopes and ice rinks, including the National Speed Skating Oval, the National Aquatics Center, the Big Air Shougang and the National Alpine Skiing Center, during Beijing’s pro-consumption campaign with the theme of ice and snow during the season.

Beijing 2022 ignited people’s enthusiasm for winter sports in north China’s Hebei Province, where a parallel session of the 9th National Public Ice and Snow Season, a public event promoting winter sports, was launched in December 2022. The event will last through February this year. A total of 344 ice and snow activities are scheduled, and are expected to attract over 10 million participants. Hebei recently started issuing coupons worth 15 million yuan (about $2.23 million) to promote ice and snow consumption.

This aerial photo taken on Jan. 5, 2023 shows tourists visiting the Harbin Ice-Snow World theme park in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Multiple localities in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces in northeast China have launched a slew of ice and snow festivals, encouraging people to take part in ice and snow activities. During the Spring Festival holiday, which ran from Jan. 21 to 27, the number of tourists visiting the Changbai Mountain scenic area and the Chagan Lake scenic area surged 294.31 percent and 419.86 percent year on year, respectively.

Northeast China’s Liaoning Province has launched a range of winter sports competitions, including an ice dragon boat race and an ice yachting race held in Shenyang, the provincial capital.

In Linxia city, northwest China’s Gansu Province, short-distance trips themed on ice and snow became wildly popular among people even before the Spring Festival holiday. Various scenic areas in the city have integrated ice and snow resources with cultural activities, sports, and tourism, attracting throngs of tourists.

Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, pointed out that ice and snow tourism has revitalized traditional folklore and created a number of more modern, dynamic, and fashionable tourism destinations and consumption scenarios.

A visitor plays in the Ice and Snow World of Beiling Park in Shenyang, capital city of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, Jan. 23, 2023. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

China’s “Snow Town,” a scenic area located in Heilongjiang Province, held float parades, yangko performances (a folk-style Chinese dance), bonfire parties, fireworks shows, and other activities every night in winter. During the Spring Festival holiday, the Snow Town received a total of 66,000 tourists.

At the Thaiwoo Ski Resort and Alpine Park in Chongli district, Zhangjiakou, a co-host city of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, lion and dragon dance performances were held on Jan. 26, attracting numerous visitors.

During the Spring Festival holiday, the ski resorts in the district launched various cultural and entertainment activities, giving tourists the chance to experience a strong Spring Festival atmosphere while enjoying ice and snow sports. Almost all hotel rooms at the ski resorts were sold out, according to an official with the publicity department of the Chongli district Party committee.

A player competes in the ice hockey preliminary round of the Ice and Snow Games at the ice rink in Shijiazhuang, north China’s Hebei Province, Jan. 28, 2023. (People’s Daily Online/Zhang Xiaofeng)

Multiple localities in China have accelerated the development of the entire ice and snow industrial chain by developing winter sports competitions, ice and snow tourism, and winter sports equipment manufacturing, so as to boost the high-quality development of the winter sports industry and ice and snow industry.

The China Tourism Academy predicts that the number of ice and snow leisure travelers in China will exceed 300 million in the 2022-2023 ice and snow season. The figure is expected to reach 520 million, and related tourism revenues will reach 720 billion yuan in the 2024-2025 ice and snow season.