Children relish their first taste of snow business

CHANGCHUN — Children's peals of laughter are echoing on the Tianding Mountain Ski Field in Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin province.

Among the "snow angels", 4-year-old Zhang Yiyi is gamboling after skiing down the slope.

Yiyi's mother, Bi Jiaxin, says the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics sparked the girl's motivation for participating in skiing. For the upcoming weekend, Bi has scheduled a two-day training course for her daughter. She hopes that both of them could enjoy skiing in the future.

Like the Zhangs, more families are going out to experience snow sports.

According to Ma He, sales director at the Tianding resort, family snow tours have become a popular choice as the resort sees a new high in skiing beginners aged 3-4.

Xiao Bo Luo is a famous influencer on Chinese social media platform Douyin. Instructed by her father who is a ski coach, Xiao Bo Luo has developed several breathtaking tricks through her snowboarding training at Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin city, Jilin province.

"Snow kids" like Xiao Bo Luo, who was led into snow sports by her parents since young, are not individual cases anymore.

Tian Yang, a snow sports enthusiast from Changchun, says he not only bought himself a new set of ski equipment recently but also enrolled his child in a winter camp.

Tian found that a number of ski clubs he subscribed have been promoting winter camps and family activities on social media platform WeChat since November.

"I got my child registered on my sixth attempt. The previous five camps were all full," he says.

Olympic champion Su Yiming and other young athletes' successes inspired a lot of parents to spend time with their children on snow.

Huang Zhongrui, marketing head of Vanke Songhua Lake Resort in Jilin city, says the Beijing Winter Olympics have brought unprecedented growth opportunities to China's ice and snow economy.

"We are excited to see more teenagers having their first skiing experience here," he says.

Zhang Yinan, cultural and creative department manager at Miaoxiang Mountain Hot Spring and Ski Resort in Changchun, says that the resort has added 3,000 sets of new snow equipment with 20 percent being children's sizes.

Family snow tours not only create a new segment for resorts but also boost snow consumption.

"Many parents prefer to buy a full set of professional snow equipment for their children rather than rent it," says Ji Cheng, a store manager of Amer Sports in Tonghua city, Jilin province.

Xinhua