The National Ice and Snow Facilities Construction Plan (2016–2022), jointly formulated and issued by the General Administration of Sport of China and six other ministries, is divided into four parts: background, general requirements, main tasks, and safeguard measures.
The background section points out that although ice and snow sports in China have developed rapidly, there is a shortage of facilities, and service quality remains low, which does not meet the needs of developing these sports and lags far behind leading ice and snow nations. By the end of 2015, China had over 200 ice rinks, more than 500 ski resorts, approximately 30 million square meters of ski slopes, and about 1,000 kilometers of ski runs, with around four-fifths of ski resorts having slope areas of less than 50,000 square meters. Therefore, accelerating the planning and construction of ice and snow facilities is a fundamental requirement for improving China’s competitive level in ice and snow sports, successfully hosting the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, popularizing ice and snow sports, and achieving the goal of “300 million people participating in ice and snow activities.” It is also a key element in meeting the growing sports needs of the people, promoting the integration of fitness and health, and building a healthy China and a strong sporting nation.
The general requirements define guiding principles, basic policies, and construction goals. They propose significantly enhancing the effective supply of ice and snow facilities nationwide by 2022, greatly increasing socioeconomic benefits, and preliminarily forming a reasonably distributed, diverse, and demand-meeting network of ice and snow facilities. Specific targets include no fewer than 650 ice rinks nationwide, including at least 500 newly built ones; 800 ski resorts, with a total slope area of 100 million square meters and a total length of 3,500 kilometers, including no fewer than 240 newly built ski resorts, with a slope area of no less than 70 million square meters and a total length of no less than 2,500 kilometers.
To achieve the above construction goals, the plan outlines specific tasks: overall planning for the development of ice and ski facilities, encouraging the creation of ice and snow theme parks. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region should take the Winter Olympics as an opportunity to build venues capable of hosting high-level, comprehensive international ice and snow competitions. The Northeast region should expand scale and improve quality on the existing foundation, steadily advancing the construction of ice and snow facilities. The North and Northwest regions should focus on building recreational fitness-oriented ice and snow facilities. The Southwest and East China regions should tailor plans according to local conditions and develop ice and snow venues using regional resources. The Southern region should construct ice rinks based on economic and social development levels.
The fourth part of the plan covers safeguard measures. The first is strengthening organizational leadership by establishing an ice and snow facility construction working mechanism led by sports, development and reform, industry and information technology, finance, housing and urban-rural development, and tourism departments, with participation from relevant sectors, to coordinate and resolve conflicts and issues arising during implementation. Investment mechanisms will be improved to encourage various types of social capital to participate in the development of ice and snow facilities. Land policies will be refined to ensure land space for the development of ice and snow facilities, incorporating it into local land use master plans. Preferential policies will be implemented, maintaining water, electricity, gas, and heating prices for ice and snow venues no higher than standard industrial rates, following current tax incentives for sports venues. Safety supervision will be reinforced by ensuring proper rescue equipment and encouraging specialized insurance products to enter the ice and snow market.