Interest in winter sports is growing with millions of residents participating last year and various venues have been busy reaping the benefits, Xing Yi reports.

Youngsters sample the delights of skating at Ice Live, an outdoor rink which was set up next to the city's landmark Oriental Pearl TV Tower. It opened to the public on Jan 18 and runs for the duration of the Winter Games. (GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY)

Shanghai rarely sees snow but the enthusiasm for "cool sports" in the city is nevertheless growing due to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and Zhangjiakou in Hebei province, and the efforts of local authorities to promote them.

In the city's Lujiazui financial area, an open-air ice rink located next to the landmark Oriental Pearl TV Tower has been welcoming hordes of visitors since 2019. The rink is the brainchild of Yang Yang, a retired speed skater who won China's first Winter Olympics gold medal in 2002.

"I remember when the rink first opened in 2019, people were so amazed that many would wait hours to get on the ice," says Yang.

The Winter Olympics will become a fond memory for this generation of Chinese, so I founded this ice rink to let more people in this city experience the charm of winter sports.

Yang Yang, a retired speed skater who won China’s first Winter Olympics gold medal in 2002

"I practiced skating outdoors when I was young, so this open-air ice rink brings back many memories. The Winter Olympics will become a fond memory for this generation of Chinese, so I founded this ice rink to let more people in this city experience the charm of winter sports," she adds.

Called Ice Live, the rink opened this year on Jan 18 and will be available throughout the Winter Games, which runs from Feb 4 to Feb 20.

Outdoor rinks

According to the Shanghai Sports Bureau, the city currently has 14 indoor ice rinks and eight outdoor rinks located at shopping malls, albeit only during winter. This is in stark contrast to 2015, when Beijing won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Games. Back then, there were 11 indoor ice rinks and no outdoor options.

Among the newest outdoor rinks in Shanghai is Rink on the Bund, which opened at the BFC shopping mall. According to Wang Yiliao, marketing manager of the mall, up to 500 people visit the rink on weekends.

Wang says he proposed the idea of opening the 200-square-meter rink in the central plaza to celebrate the 2022 Winter Olympics and draw more traffic to the mall.

"In addition to its prime location near the Bund, the rink is also surrounded by food trucks and accompanied by light shows and performances at night. It provides people with a combined experience of sports, leisure and entertainment," he says.

"In European countries where winter sports are more common, skating is part of their holiday season activity," Wang adds. "This rink will not be a one-time thing for the Olympics－we plan to do it every year to create a holiday atmosphere for customers who come to our shopping mall."

Besides sporting venues, the municipal sports bureau has also partnered with the municipal education commission to introduce winter sports courses to schools and holds more than 5,000 competitions that attract about 1.2 million students every year.

Among those offering such courses is Yang, who founded the Feiyang Skating Center in Pudong district in 2013. The center, which offers classes for curling, ice hockey and speed and figure skating, also has a branch in Minhang district. Business at the two centers has been growing, says Yang.

"When I founded the center, I sought to collaborate with 19 schools but only one agreed to open skating courses along with the center. Today, we have partnerships with more than a dozen schools and the centers are always packed during the weekends," she says.

Coach Wen Xu teaches snowboarding on a simulator in one of the Foryou Ski centers, an indoor skiing chain of the Fosun Tourism Group, in Shanghai. (GAO ERQIANG / CHINA DAILY)

Urban skiing

Winter sports experiences in the form of indoor skiing simulators have been popping up in shopping malls, too. These simulators, says skiing enthusiast Chen Guoyun, are useful as they help to ease people into the sport.

"Snowboarding can be quite difficult to grasp so it's good to get a feel for it first on the simulator before hitting the slopes," says Chen, who first tried using a skiing simulator at the Qibao Vanke Plaza in Shanghai in 2019.

"Indoor skiing simulators were difficult to find three years ago, but now more and more shopping malls have them," he adds.

According to the municipal sports bureau, there were 43 indoor skiing centers in Shanghai by the end of last year, up from 17 three years ago.

Such simulators also serve as a catalyst for growing winter sports enthusiasm. Chen Yunyan, for instance, says she is raring to hit the slopes after learning how to ski at Foryou Ski, an indoor facility of Fosun Tourism Group. It is located within the Shanghai No 1 Department Store.

Although the 8-year-old has never skied on real snow, she has already mastered the skills required for the intermediate snow track, thanks to the 20 training sessions she underwent starting last summer.

Xue Dongliang, manager of the center, says around 50 percent of the customers are children, with the youngest being only 3 years old. Xue also notes that business has grown as skiing is increasingly viewed as a "cool pastime".

Fosun Tourism Group presently operates three indoor skiing centers in Shanghai, two in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, and one in Sanya, Hainan province. The package, consisting of 24 ski or snowboarding sessions with a private coach and gear rental, costs 15,888 yuan ($2,500) at Foryou Ski. According to senior skiing instructor Wen Xu, getting to experience the sport first through a simulator comes with benefits.

"Learning skiing on simulators requires more precise movements. As such, my students often perform well in the snow when they finish their urban skiing courses," he says. "There are also veteran skiers who come to the center to hone their skills on the simulator ahead of the skiing season."

Parents bring children to skate in the Rink on the Bund at the BFC shopping mall in downtown Shanghai. (XING YI / CHINA DAILY)

Building resorts

The establishment of a new ski resort in the city has also been high on the agenda of the municipal sports bureau. Before the end of this year, Shanghai will have a new resort called Wintastar, built over a 300,000-square-meter area in Lingang, Pudong, which will have three ski slopes and over 25 snow attractions open throughout the year. The city's previous ski resort, Silver Seven Stars, opened in 2002 but closed in 2010 due to high operational costs.

Wintastar is expected to be warmly welcomed considering the growing interest in winter sports in recent years, says Chen Guoqiang, an associate professor with Shanghai University of Sport. He notes that growing household incomes is also one of the main factors driving this trend.

"Beijing and Shanghai are among China's mega cities, and the GDP in both exceeds 4 trillion yuan," he says. "The development of winter sports in Shanghai will drive the industry to grow even further in the Yangtze River Delta region."

Statistics paint the same picture. According to figures from the municipal sports bureau, 2.8 million residents participated in winter sports last year, up from just 600,000 in 2017.

Chen notes that Shanghai is not a stranger to winter sports. The city has hosted the short-track speed skating and figure skating world championships. The International Ski Federation also held its cross-country skiing competition in Shanghai for the first time in December.

"The promotion of winter sports will also contribute to Shanghai's drive to become a globally famous sport city in 2025," says Chen.

Andrew Xu, CEO of Club Med China, a French premium resorts brand, shares the same sentiments, pointing out that many Shanghai residents already frequent ski resorts in northern China, Japan and Europe.

"Compared with people from the rest of China, Shanghai residents are more willing to travel long distances and spend their holidays at ski resorts," says Xu. "There is a big circle of skiing enthusiasts in Shanghai. When I visited Club Med's newly opened ski resort in the Changbai Mountains in Northeast China recently, I walked into an elevator filled with people speaking in the Shanghai dialect."

Xu, who is also the executive president of Fosun Tourism Group, points out that the company is currently building an indoor ski resort in Taicang, Jiangsu province, located just an hour's drive away from downtown Shanghai.

"We see a lot of potential in winter sports driving the growth of the leisure industry in China," he says. "The Beijing Winter Olympic Games is only the beginning."

Contact the writer at xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn