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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Skiers cool off at world’s largest indoor ski park
Print Edition
AT Harbin’s new Ice and Snow Park in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, chilly winds blew snowflakes around skiers zipping down the manmade slopes of the world’s largest indoor ski park, a potent symbol of China’s ambitions to turn itself into a winter sports powerhouse ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Kept at a chilly minus 5 degrees Celsius, the sprawling 80,000-square-meter facility boasts six runs, the longest stretching 500 meters.
“Skiing here is just like skiing in a big refrigerator,” 10-year-old Kane Li grins beneath his neon goggles. He has ambitions of competing at the Games.
A student at a private ski academy in Beijing, Li and his fellow young Olympic aspirants used to spend their summers training in New Zealand, but the opening of Wanda Group’s indoor ski park means they can now stay closer to home even in warm weather.
“China’s skiing is still not so great (compared with other countries),” Li says: “We must train hard every day. Train more.”
A ‘hip’ new pastime
Not long ago, skiing was considered a luxury activity in China, inaccessible to the average person.
The country is currently home to roughly 6 million skiers, and President Xi Jinping hopes that number will rise to 300 million in the coming years.
China has had great success at the Summer Olympics, but its few Winter Olympic victories have been centered on speed skating. The country has won six skiing medals — all in freestyle — including one gold.
There are about 200 ski resorts in China. Chinese officials are aiming to increase that number fivefold by 2030.
“We didn’t have anywhere to ski when I was growing up,” says Yi Li, general manager of Wanda’s indoor park.
The Beijing native first tried the sport 11 years ago while working at a ski resort in Hebei Province’s Zhangjiakou, which will host the 2022 Olympic alpine skiing events.
He picked up the sport quickly, becoming an instructor and even training in Switzerland.
Now he says China is ready to make skiing a national pastime.
“Skiing is hip,” Yi says. “From the apparel to the equipment, there’s a lot of freedom.”
He recalls that when he first discovered the sport, most Chinese people were unwilling to try it because the gear was expensive, and they needed a car to reach the mountains.
After the country’s economic reforms, people had more disposable income and more time to take vacations, he says.
There were about 40 people on Ice and Snow Park’s slopes on a recent weekend. Some carved through the firm and “sticky” snow with ease, while others struggled to get their skis on.
An agile snowboarder helped a stumbling skier to the bottom.
The slopes are equipped with a chairlift, a sledding area and a bunny hill, not to mention a ski lodge bedecked with faux wood.
For average visitors, the cost to ski for an entire day, including all rental equipment, is 488 yuan (US$74). The most popular package is a three-hour visit at 300 yuan.
‘Heroin sport’
The average disposable income in China was 23,821 yuan in 2016.
According to Yi, more than 10 professional teams from across the country have been coming to train in the mornings since the slopes opened.
And then there are groups like Li’s, which trains with the Beijing-based International Ski Academy and hopes to make it to the Olympics.
The prepubescent athletes planned to spend nearly a month in Harbin, skiing four hours a day at the indoor park.
“At the moment the government is very supportive of skiing,” says Zhao Quan, the principal of the ski academy. “They’re vigorously promoting the development of the sport in primary and secondary schools around the country.
“Also, for a child, skiing is a ‘heroin sport’ — it’s very addictive.”
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