On ice and snow, ardour grows for winter enjoyable

At the tip of 2023, Zoey Zhao made a life-changing choice — she stop her full-time HR job in Shanghai to dedicate herself totally to winter snowboarding. For the 2025-26 season, she selected Songhua Lake Ski Resort in Jilin province in Northeast China, desirous to pursue her ardour on the slopes.

Skiing was once a easy passion for Zhao — fast journeys from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, with out breaks or meals. But this winter, she spent three months absolutely immersed in snowboarding, discovering a brand new love for the game.

“I”ve turn out to be a bit obsessed,” she laughed. “I watch movies of knowledgeable skiers on-line, observe at house, then attempt new strikes on the slopes.”

What makes snowboarding so enticing is that it offers folks immediate suggestions — “you know right away if you’ve done it right, and it feels amazing”, she mentioned.

Every time Zhao hits the slopes, she will get nearer to perfecting her expertise. Some strikes take per week or extra to grasp, however the pleasure she will get from enhancing retains her coming again. Whether it’s delicate early-season snow or deep powder later within the winter, every day on the mountain feels completely different.

Zhao mentioned she has skilled the whole lot from freezing temperatures of — 30 C to milder, sunny days. “It’s amazing how skiing challenges you to push your limits against nature,” she mentioned.

As the season unfolded, Zhao watched the resort come alive. Over holidays and weekends, the slopes buzzed with guests — not solely native skiers, but additionally college students and households from throughout the nation, together with numerous first-timers experiencing the game for the primary time.

“Skiing is growing so fast here,” she mentioned. “The beginner areas, like the magic carpet zones, are always crowded with new skiers. The energy is contagious.”

This progress mirrors China’s bigger push for winter sports activities, particularly after the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. While worldwide manufacturers nonetheless dominate the ski gear market, Zhao has observed extra native choices for clothes, boots and equipment. But the price of snowboarding remains to be excessive.

“A lift ticket costs some 300 yuan ($43) to 400 yuan per day. A week at a place like the Seibu Prince Hotel in Jilin can run up to 30,000 yuan during peak seasons such as holidays, and a budget guesthouse might be 300 yuan a night,” she mentioned.

Zhao’s private journey displays the expansion of China’s snow and ice financial system. As extra folks uncover snowboarding, native companies and types are stepping as much as meet the demand. For Zhao, this winter will all the time be the time when snowboarding went from a weekend passion to a full-time ardour. Her journey is a snapshot of the broader transformation unfolding in China’s winter sports activities trade. The snow and ice financial system is quickly increasing, pushed by rising shopper curiosity in winter sports activities.

“Currently, China’s ice and snow economy has entered a new stage of scaled development, with increasing industrial resilience and enormous market potential,” mentioned Jiang Yiyi, dean of the School of Sports Leisure and Tourism at Beijing Sport University.

She mentioned that China’s ice and snow financial system is regularly breaking by geographical limitations, forming a nationwide improvement sample between markets within the north and south.

Additionally, the mixing mannequin of “ice and snow plus” is deepening, with new enterprise codecs resembling ice and snow research excursions, folk-themed ice and snow actions, and evening snowboarding rising, driving income progress in associated industries, Jiang added.

The ski resort sector has been one of many largest beneficiaries. Resorts like Songhua Lake have seen a big improve in guests, particularly amongst youthful generations, as extra folks from southern China search out winter sports activities experiences.

According to the 2024-2025 China Ski Industry White Paper by Wu Bin, founder and CEO of Beijing Snowpal Enterprise Management Co Ltd, in the course of the 2024-25 snow season, the whole variety of ski resorts in operation was 748. Among them, 66 had been indoor resorts and 682 had been outside resorts.

This is a 29-resort improve from the earlier yr, with 181 resorts now working aerial ropeways, together with 174 outside and 7 indoor resorts, mentioned the report.

The variety of skier visits displays this surge in demand. From May 1, 2024, to April 30, 2025, China’s home ski resorts hosted 26.05 million skier visits, a 12.9 p.c improve from the earlier yr. The variety of skiers elevated by 5.86 p.c to 13.55 million, and the per capita snowboarding frequency additionally rose from 1.80 to 1.92, displaying how skiers are coming again to the slopes extra typically, in line with the report.

Provincial progress can also be notable. In specific, Shaanxi, Hubei and Jilin provinces noticed the most important will increase in skier visits, with Shaanxi’s progress pushed by new indoor resorts. Jilin, however, noticed its progress pushed by its intensive outside resorts, solidifying its place as one in every of China’s prime ski locations.

Indoor ski resorts are seeing a very sturdy rise. Between 2024 and 2025, six new indoor resorts opened, bringing the whole to 66, a ten p.c improve from the earlier yr. These resorts generated 5.63 million skier visits, accounting for 21.6 p.c of the whole variety of skier visits in China. As extra indoor resorts open, they’re turning into key gamers within the Chinese ski market, providing snowboarding experiences year-round, even in hotter months.

For instance, southern markets are overcoming geographical challenges in temperatures by bringing ice and snow into cities. Shanghai’s Xintiandi Dongtaili purchasing and way of life vacation spot has launched the worldwide IP “Uncle Daniel” to create the Aurora Ice and Snow Town. In Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Huafa Ice and Snow World acquired over 4,500 guests on its trial opening day, whereas Shanghai L+Snow Indoor Skiing Theme Resort welcomed greater than 1 million guests in its first yr of operation.

Data from Qixin.com present that there are at the moment 31,337 ice and snow-related enterprises nationwide, with 1,327 new additions prior to now yr. These firms span all the industrial chain, protecting sectors resembling gear, cultural tourism and ski resort operations.

Wu from Beijing Snowpal mentioned that the outside ski market is seeing rising focus, with vacation spot resorts like these in Jilin province and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous area experiencing notable progress.

Wu mentioned that whereas indoor resorts and ski faculties in city areas are essential for studying and informal snowboarding, nearly all of the market is specializing in locations, resembling massive ski resorts, in areas like Jilin, Xinjiang and Hebei.

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