At the foot of the slopes of the small resort of Taiwo, a group of skiers are getting ready to climb into the chairlift. Some beginners motivated by the Winter Olympics which will begin on February 4th. Others have already taken a liking to the pleasures of skiing. “I started to ski a little in 1997, without really making any progress. But for a year or two, thanks to the influence of the Games, I have been skiing a lot, explains Ian, 61. Now I am able to go down a black slope! In my childhood, that didn’t exist. “
The practice of skiing in China is not new, some regions such as Xinjiang or Dongbei have famous resorts, but nationally this remains confidential. Since the country won the Winter Games, the government has been doing everything to encourage the Chinese to take an interest in skiing, as Jia Maotiang, director of operations for the Olympic venues in the municipality of Zhanjiakou, explains: “Thanks to the Winter Olympics, everyone now knows what cross-country skiing or biathlon is, which was not necessarily the case before.”
“With the Olympics, we are carrying out a policy which aims to root winter sports in the education of children, with a particular economic goal.”
Jia Maotiang, Olympic Venue Operations Managerto franceinfo
In the future, he has no doubt, China will be a great country in the field of winter sports. The number of ski resorts has already literally exploded in recent years. The country has 600 today, against a hundred in the 2000s. For monitors like Menghzen, there is no shortage of work. “During the Christmas holidays, we welcome more than 300 children a day and there are simply not enough monitors”, he notes.
“Parents are giving more and more importance to winter sports with all the promotions around the Games.”
Menghzen, ski instructorto franceinfo
To compensate for the high demand, more and more instructors are being trained. But China is also investing in equipment. At the top of the area, this young skier is proud of her new outfit. She started skiing six years ago, when the Games were announced, and has seen a real evolution: “Before, the ski equipment I bought was imported with the big brands. Now we have a lot of Chinese brands. You see, my ski outfit is Chinese.” The goal set by President Xi Jinping is to reach 300 million skiers in China.