China's winter sports practitioners show confidence on countering COVID-19

LANZHOU -- Despite the closing of a number of ski resorts due to the coronavirus outbreak, China's winter sports practitioners still show confidence on countering the epidemic of COVID-19 as they begin to look forward to the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing 2022.

During winter vacation, Jia Pengze, a sixth-grader in Baiyin city of Northwest China's Gansu province, was sent by his parents to the Yellow River Stone Forest ski resort to practice skiing.

"I love skiing and I will be back soon," 12-year-old Jia said after his last ski class as the resort was closed due to the virus outbreak.

Gou Faxia, the manager of the ski resort, admitted that the company suffered heavy losses recently. "My ski resort has been shut off for nearly one month," she said. "COVID-19 prevents ski lovers from skiing."

However, the booming business in the past two years kept Gou confident as she believed the impact of the epidemic will only be temporary.

"Last year, the ski resort has received more than 100,000 skiers. It might be affected by the diseases temporarily, but will not be destroyed. Next year this industry will be better," she said.

With the 2022 Olympic Winter Games approaching and China's plan to get 300 million people engaged in winter sports, China's winter sports enjoyed rapid development in the last two years. According to China Tourism Academy, China's winter sports tourism population reached 224 million in 2019, a rise of 13.7 percent year-on-year. In the same period, the income from winter sports tourism was about 386 billion yuan, which saw year-on-year rises of 17.1 percent.

Winter sports tourism has become trendy for Chinese people. The ski resorts across China has been built from northeast to northwest, even in south China where people rarely see any snow.

In Baiyin city, a National Snow Sports Training Base is almost finished based on the facilities of the Yellow River Forest ski resort, with cross-country skiing and biathlon venues ready for training.

Ding Dong, executive deputy director of winter sports center of the General Administration of Sport, believed the construction of the National Snow Sports Training Base in Gansu province would help athletes prepare the future Winter Olympic Games and host sports events.

"This will attract more people to participate in winter sports," Ding said.