by Jia Wei

 

BEIJING, Feb. 4 (China Economic Net) - At an ice hockey rink in the western suburbs of Beijing, a group of children under the age of ten, holding hockey sticks, enthusiastically chased a puck weighing less than 200 grams, while parents cheered through the glass outside.

 

Li Wei, the father of one of the young players, told reporters that he would bring his son here once a week for four-hour lessons at a cost of RMB 1,000. "He likes it, and I think it’s great for kids to have a hobby, especially niche sports.”

 

In the past, ice hockey was considered an unpopular sport in China. Most children prefer popular sports such as football and basketball, and parents tend to let their children learn traditional Chinese sports such as table tennis and badminton. As Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics approach, more and more people know and pay attention to ice hockey, gradually forming a group of about 20,000 hockey fans. 

 

As a country without a tradition of ice and snow sports, China now has more than 346 million winter sports fans, which exceed the total population of most countries in the world. China’s goal of engaging 300 million people in winter sports has become a reality, according to a recent report released by the General Administration of Sport of China. As of October 2021, the participation rate of Chinese residents in ice and snow sports was 24.56%.

 

Participation drives consumption. According to the estimates of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, China's ice and snow tourism will drive the output value of related industries to reach nearly RMB 3 trillion. Will China's huge Winter Olympic dividend benefit Pakistan? Is Pakistan ready to turn ‘snow’ into ‘silver’?

 

 

Yunding Ski Resort in Chongli of Zhangjiakou, which is more than 200 kilometers away from Beijing, is one of the venues for the Winter Olympics. It attracts skiers from all over the world with its top-notch infrastructure and has become a popular resort for winter sports fans. It is hard to imagine that this small town was once a poor county because of the heavy snow all year round.

 

Wang Shitong, Deputy General Manager of Yunding, is a veteran skier. He recalled that no one in China had heard of skiing before 1995. In 1996, the first group of skiers discovered Chongli as a ski resort. "At the time, the ski slopes were made by these skiers who hired local farmers to carry snow in sacks to the mountains."

 

Chongli ski industry started from the official opening of the first local ski resort in 1997. By the completion of Yunding Ski Resort in 2012, the infrastructure of Chongli has been improved and skiers from all over the world flock in. Local villagers have opened caterings and lodgings, earning dozens of times higher than farming.

 

Hosting the Winter Olympics brings Chongli a rare opportunity for green development. Tian Xuebin, an economics research expert from Hebei University of Economics and Business, said that in the first snow season in 2015, Chongli received more than 2 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 30%. 

 

The number of tourists in Zhangjiakou has quadrupled in four years. In recent years, Zhangjiakou has developed a total of 95 projects related to ice and snow industry, with an investment of nearly RMB 35 billion.

 

It is the local people who are beneficiaries. Thanks to the ice and snow economy, the local fiscal revenue has increased by nearly RMB 200 million annually in recent years. Nearly 30,000 of the local 126,000 people work directly or indirectly for the ice and snow industry. Digging through the thick snow in Chongli, people finally discovered the treasure.

 

The local government plans to build a ski area centered on Chongli by 2025, with 30 ski resorts, 600 ski trails, and more than 20 towns featuring ice and snow. By then, it will be able to meet the needs of 20 million people for ice and snow sports every year.

 

Looking at the whole China, China recently released the list of the first batch of national-level ski tourism resorts, including 12 tourism resorts from northeast China to Xinjiang, from Inner Mongolia to Sichuan. These national-level ski tourism resorts will rely on the counties where they are located to create high-level ski sports facilities and high-quality tourism services to meet the consumer demand for ski holidays. They will promote the quality and upgrading of the snow and ice industry, promote local economic and social development, and consolidate and fulfill the goal of "attracting 300 million people to participate in the snow and ice sports". According to China’s Ice and Snow Tourism Development Report 2022 released by the China Tourism Academy, the number of ice and snow tourists will exceed 300 million in the 2020-2021 snow season, and the revenue of ice and snow tourism will reach RMB 323.3 billion. Ice and snow industry has become a password shaking off poverty in many areas of China.

 

As a Chinese saying goes, a plane tree brings phoenix. Population base is a prerequisite for developing a sport, while infrastructure is the premise of developing tourism. In recent years, Pakistan has built a highway to the ski resort Swat Valley, and the local hotel industry has ushered in a peak season. The opening of Skardu International Airport in northern Pakistan at the end of last year is expected to attract more domestic and foreign tourists.

 

 

Pakistan's ski resorts are mainly concentrated in the northern region, while the southern provinces are hot and arid with almost no snow, so how to promote ice and snow sports in these areas?

 

Interestingly, in China, ice and snow resources are mainly concentrated in the northern region, while most of the tourists come from the south. According to data from a tourism platform, in 2020-2021 snow season, there are 9 southern cities among the top ten tourist source cities for ice and snow tourism.

 

During the pre-sale period of the 2021 Singles' Day shopping spree, people in Guangdong, which has one of the highest average temperatures in China with the annual temperature around 20 degrees Celsius, saw an 87 percent year-on-year increase in sales of ski sports products. Why did the snow-less cities in south China stand out in the ice economy?

 

People in south China have a natural love for ice and snow, that is why China has the world's largest number of indoor ski resort. Southerners' obsession with indoor skating, curling and even VR ski machines has also provided new ideas for Pakistan.

 

In the ice and snow industrial park in Chongli, the reporter saw a new thing: it looks like a carpet made of mushrooms, and it will not deform when stepped on. Pan Ruqun, manager of Zhangjiakou Jingxi Sports Equipment Co., Ltd., told us that this is a dry snow blanket, which can be used to simulate snow tracks for skiing by laying it on the slope. "According to the instructions of 300 million people to go on ice and snow, we have promoted this invention in primary and secondary schools in China. Children can practice skiing in normal physical education classes, and regardless of the season, the most important thing is that the cost is extremely low."

 

When visiting the factory, reporter found something interesting. This gadget would make it possible to ski even where there is no snow. “Designed for snow-free areas, these carpets have been popularized in primary and secondary schools in China’s Hebei Province, allowing students to simulate skiing in summer. It’s not expensive and is very suitable for promotion in Pakistan,” said Pan Ruqun, Manager of Zhangjiakou Jingxi Sports Equipment Co., Ltd.

 

 

How about China's ice and snow economic size? Ice and Snow Tourism Development Report showed that the total scale of China's ice and snow industry has reached RMB 600 billion in 2020. The figure is expected to reach RMB 1 trillion by 2025. The real wealth is in skiing companion including helmets, snow gear, snow suits and even sports cameras.

 

Last year JD.com saw 270% increase in snowsuit orders and six times increase in snowboard orders in the 24-hour event of Double 11 carnival. In 2021, the turnover of ice and snow sports related products on JD.com increased by 120% year-on-year. Among them, the turnover of snowboards increased by more than 220%, ski suits increased by 180%, and ski boots increased by 200%. 

 

The price of snowboard ranges from several hundred to thousands yuan, and some imported ones cost more than RMB 10,000. The price of a VR ski machine in the shopping mall is more than RMB 30,000, and the price of a single experience is RMB 50, making a considerable profit.

 

Pan started making snowboards 20 years ago, and he has witnessed the process of products from export to domestic sales in recent years. With the Winter Olympics approaching, he once sold thousands of snowboards a day. Pan told the reporter that the snowboards they produced before were mainly aimed at professional players in Europe and the United States, and the price was relatively high. Driven by the ice and snow sports boom in recent years, they have produced many entry-level snowboards to supply markets in China, Pakistan, Southeast Asia and other countries. "A few days ago, we have shipped three containers of snowboard to Pakistan." In his view, affordable prices are the prerequisite for developing ice and snow sports, and it also provides ideas for developing countries to promote winter sports.

 

While Wang suggested Pakistan buy snowmaking machine and other facilities from China, which cost less than half the price of similar products in Europe and the United States. At the same time, the windproof net made in China has been officially certified by the International Olympic Committee. The net used in the Olympic Games is independently developed by China and has met the requirements of the International Ski Federation for wind proofing. Its cost is much lower than that of products from European and American countries.

 

 

Sports festival would invite more tourists to Pakistan’s scenic Gilgit-Baltistan region that attracted around two million local and foreign tourists in 2019, addressed Pakistan President Arif Alvi at the concluding ceremony of Winter Sports Festival in the ski resort town of Naltar.

 

China has rich experience in hosting large-scale winter sports events, and there is a promising space for cooperation between Pakistan and China in promoting winter events and promoting the development of ice and snow economy. 

 

Tian believes that equipment and suits producers will benefit from the surrounding winter sports industry and the Winter Olympic Games. For example, during and after the Games, the utilization of venues will be good as there is the exhibition economy, forum economy, and tourism economy. These will form an agglomeration effect as a whole.

 

At present, the ice and snow economy in both China and Pakistan is still in the initial stage of development. As the father watching his child playing ice hockey said, "The child is still young. Whether he wants to do this in the future depends on his own efforts."

 

(This article is translated by Liao Yifan)