Winter Olympics heat up Guiyang's ice and snow economy

With the opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, winter sports have become popular among locals, leading to a boom in people at ice and snow sports fields in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, during the Spring Festival holiday from Jan 31 to Feb 6.

Guizhou is currently home to eight large outdoor ski slopes covering a total area of 3,564 mu (237.6 hectares). It also has several indoor and outdoor ski slopes and ice rinks, indicating the huge potential of the winter sports market.

To promote winter sports among teenagers, the Guiyang Bureau of Sports has organized winter sports activities for more than 2,000 students at five schools.

Guiyang's Ant Rink in Yunyan district opened on Dec 11 last year. The 400-square-meter rink receives more than 400 people per day on average. It is equipped with coaches and auxiliary equipment to help beginners learn to skate.

The Guiyang Yunding ski slope in Huaxi district has also seen a daily increase of 40 percent in tourists during the holiday. It has a max altitude of 1,500 meters with one trail for beginners and one for experts, as well as one dry trail for skiing year-round.

In the future, Guiyang will organize more winter sports and cultural activities to promote the integration of sports and tourism, encourage winter sports companies to create new technologies, and promote winter sports on campuses with the goal of getting 300 million people to engage in winter sports.