From dream to reality

Nine-year-old Li Yaosheng had rarely seen ice in his hometown of Wuhan, Hubei province, known as one of China's "furnace cities".

All that changed last year when Li's school moved his physical education classes to a newly built ice rink in the central Chinese city. Now, the youngster dreams of becoming a professional ice hockey player.

"On the ice, I feel that I can really express myself, and I love the way I can glide over the ice and shoot the puck," he told Xinhua.

Li is typical of an increasing number of kids across the country. According to the nation's winter sports governing body, around 346 million Chinese people have participated in winter sports training or winter sports-related leisure activities since Beijing won the Olympic bid in 2015. That works out at roughly a quarter of the population.

"Surpassing the goal of involving 300 million people in ice and snow sports is greatly attributable to the investment in facilities, education in schools and the improvement of amateur training at grassroots level," said Wang Yuxiong, director of the Sports Economics Research Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

New lifestyle

After fastening his helmet, goggles and gloves, Wang Jian took off down the slope at Fulong Ski Resort in Chongli, a district of Beijing 2022 co-host city Zhangjiakou. His smooth trajectory disguised the fact that Wang is 72 years old.

"I picked up skiing out of curiosity when the country called for engaging 300 million people in winter sports, but I didn't expect myself to become addicted," said Wang, who has skied for the last five winters.

As a ski instructor at Fulong, Shi Wei says that Chinese people's fervor for winter sports has been on the rise in recent years. "We used to host very few teenagers or the elderly, but now kids as young as 11 months and people in their 70s and 80s take part in winter sports here," he said.

Winter sports have also become familiar to students nationwide, with related projects launched on campuses.

At Dianchang Road Elementary School in western Beijing, students can be seen circling the courtyard on roller skis, or practicing biathlon shooting on a special range.

At the back of the school is a full-scale curling rink that is operational all year round, even in the summer when the temperature can hit the high-30s Celsius.

Approximately 300 students get to experience a variety of sports－from ice hockey to cross-country skiing, speed skating and curling.

"I have learned a lot about the Olympics at school. I hope athletes can realize their dreams at Beijing 2022," said 10-year-old pupil Zhang Jinhao.

According to a plan jointly released in 2018 by China's Ministry of Education and General Administration of Sport, over 2,000 elementary or secondary schools added winter sports to their curricula by 2020. By 2025, the figure is expected to reach 5,000.

Elite athletes are helping out with the push.

Guo Dandan, China's first freestyle skiing World Cup winner, is now a member of the Beijing 2022 publicity team. In the last three years, she has delivered over 300 speeches to promote winter sports－reaching a total online and offline audience in excess of 100 million people.

Earlier this month, Guo visited Wuhan Jilinjie Elementary School to share stories about her career and show students her gold medal.

"From their reactions, I feel that children in South or Central China have a great passion for winter sports. I hope my story can introduce more people to ice and snow sports and maybe they'll find it fun," Guo said.

Boom times

The soaring demand from the public has fueled a boom in the construction of ice and snow facilities.

Data shows that China now has 654 standard ice rinks, an increase of 317 percent from 2015. The number of indoor and outdoor ski resorts reached 803, up from 568 in 2015.

The boom in winter sports has also helped improve the livelihoods of thousands of Chinese people.

Zhang Erkui runs a restaurant named Hualangge in Hongping Town, located deep in the mountains of Shennongjia Forestry District in Hubei province. For a long time after opening in 1999, business was slow during the winter, but that's not the case now.

"Thanks to the construction of ski resorts in our town, more and more visitors come in winter and we can do business all year round," said Zhang, who now usually earns over 40,000 yuan (nearly $6,300) during the winter.

Since 2004, Shennongjia has welcomed more than 3 million skiers, driving revenue streams and increasing employment for local people, said Liu Qijun, deputy Party secretary of Shennongjia Forestry District.

In Chongli, once an impoverished county in Zhangjiakou with limited agricultural income, the change was even more striking. In 2015,16.8 percent of the 100,000 residents in Chongli were classed as living below China's national poverty line.

But this mountainous district, which will stage most of the snow events at Beijing 2022, has been transformed into a skier's paradise. In 2019, the New York Times named Chongli as one of 52 global ski destinations worth visiting.

In May 2019, Chongli was officially lifted out of poverty. Nearly a quarter of Chongli's population works in ski resorts or for related companies and organizations.

"The Games represent a formidable asset to accelerating long-term development. This is what has been done for Beijing 2022, and we've learned a lot," said the International Olympic Committee's Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi.

Far-reaching influence

According to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Chinese people made 254 million winter sports-related trips last year. The upcoming Winter Games are expected to further boost winter sports, with Chinese people making an estimated 305 million such trips during the current winter season.

As far as IOC president Thomas Bach is concerned, Beijing 2022 will surely "be a huge legacy for global winter sports".

"It will also be very important for the legacy of the Olympic venues because, with this participation, the use of these venues after the Olympic Games is secured," Bach said.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (BOCOG) published its plan for post-Games utilization of the competition venues.

According to Li Sen, the director of BOCOG's general planning department, Beijing 2022 will use six competition venues built for the 2008 Olympics. Meanwhile, all newly built venues considered post-Games utilization at the planning stage.

"After the Games, the venues will bid for and stage high-level sports events. The venues will also operate in all seasons and be fully open to the public," said Li.

Besides the venues, experts believe that Beijing 2022 will have a far-reaching influence on the ice and snow industry as well as the country.

"The Games are no passing fad. I'm confident that the Beijing Winter Olympics will leave a legacy of talent, infrastructure, and technology, just as the 2008 Beijing Olympics did," said Wang Jun, vice-president of the Wuhan Ice and Snow Sports Association.

Xinhua