“People in our village should also be in the same frequency as the Winter Olympics!” In Shanligezhuang Village, Zunhua City, Hebei Province, Zhang Lu, a villager, stood beside the ski area transformed from the left tailings, his eyebrows beamed. In this once-closed village, a village ice and snow festival was held in the village before the New Year. There are all kinds of sports such as table curling, land hockey and skiing. The new method of winter fitness brought by the wind of the Winter Olympics has brought more light to rural life.
The details of the mountain village reflect the changes in China. There is still one month to go before the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Nowadays, ice and snow sports are everywhere in China. Ice and snow tourism leads the upsurge, and the ice and snow industry benefits the public. Since the successful bid for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the vision of “driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports” is becoming a reality. In the north and south of the Yangtze River, inside and outside the Great Wall, the public ice and snow industry is ushering in spring.
In the northeast area where the traditional ice and snow sports gather, the Winter Olympics add a fire to the winter here. In this snow season, Jilin Province will hold more than 300 ice and snow sports activities in six categories to achieve the goal of 10 million people participating in ice and snow sports. In Harbin Ice and Snow World, the cross-year highlight of “Ice City” Harbin, the Winter Olympic elements become the source of inspiration for ice and snow modeling. In Liaoning, ice and snow sports have entered special education schools to share the dividends of the Winter Olympics.
In the south, where there is no natural ice and snow, the east wind of the Winter Olympics also brings fire to the ice and snow movement. In Wuhan, the eighth national mass snow and ice season came to the central region for the first time. In Chongqing, the number of people participating in ice and snow sports increased from less than 10000 in 2018 to one million in 2021. In Nanning before the New Year, children who love figure skating dance at the 2021 Ice Feast. From looking for high-level coaches in northern cities to performing on the ice rink at home, the mother of a young athlete said, “We can tell you by actions that children in the south can also realize their dreams of ice and snow”.
In the host place of the Winter Olympic Games, people go on ice and snow in succession to welcome the grand event to be held at their home. On the occasion of the New Year, the “2022 Beijing Ice and Snow Consumption Festival” was launched, and six popular ice rinks in Beijing will be opened in the first ten days of January. Hebei has held community ice and snow games across the province, achieving full coverage of 4502 communities. As of December 15, 2021, Hebei Province has held more than 38000 ice and snow sports events, with more than 30 million people participating in the ice and snow sports… From the southeast coast to the western border, the results of the strategy of “expanding from the south to the west to the east” of the ice and snow sports are emerging everywhere.
The enthusiasm of hot ice and snow sports has also promoted the development of relevant industries. According to the Research Report on the Development of China’s Ice and Snow Industry (2021), the total scale of China’s ice and snow industry increased from 270 billion yuan to 600 billion yuan from 2015 to 2020; According to the Development Plan of Ice and Snow Sports (2016-2025), this figure will reach 1 trillion yuan by 2025.
More people ate “ice and snow rice”. In Zhaigoumen Village, Laiyuan County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, 51-year-old Xie Erming has lived in the mountains for generations. Later, Laiyuan County accelerated the pace of transformation and development, and vigorously developed the ice and snow tourism industry. “Ice and snow” gradually became “golden mountains and silver mountains”. Now, Xie Erming works in Laiyuan Qishan Ski Resort.
“It turns out that I work hard in the mine every day. Later, the mine closed and I found a new job in the ski resort. Now I can earn more than 7000 yuan a month,” Xie Erming said. The development of mass ice and snow not only enables people to enjoy sports in winter as in spring, but also ushers in spring for more people’s lives.
Yi Jiandong, an Olympic research expert and professor at Wenzhou University, summarized the growth data of China’s ice and snow sports since the bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, and believed that “driving 300 million people to participate in the ice and snow sports” is our determination and confidence to the international community. The Beijing Winter Olympics has brought unprecedented progress to China’s ski sports, and the development of China’s ice and snow sports has entered the best period in history.
A month later, the flame of the Beijing Winter Olympics will be lit. China is welcoming a new 2022 year with the enthusiasm of the whole people.
Public ice and snow primrose inside and outside the Great Wall
