Members of China’s national women’s curling team — Wang Bingyu, Liu Yin, Yue Qingchuan, and Zhou Yan (from left to right) — pose for a photo in front of the sales and exhibition center at Harbin Wanda Cultural Tourism City, which is modeled after a curling stone.
Every winter, the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival attracts millions of tourists, but the development of winter sports in Harbin has clearly lagged behind the festival, which puts the “Ice City” in somewhat of an awkward position. However, many businesses have gradually realized the potential of Harbin’s winter sports scene — a reporter visiting Harbin recently found that Wanda Group is planning to build the world’s largest indoor ski resort in the city. This ski resort will be the highlight of Harbin Wanda Cultural Tourism City.
Heilongjiang’s most well-known ski resort is Yabuli Ski Resort, located near Harbin. But as the province with China’s richest ice and snow resources, it’s clearly not enough for Heilongjiang to have just one nationally famous ski destination.
Jiang Yueqing, director of the Heilongjiang Winter Sports Management Center, told reporters that there are over 210 ski resorts in Heilongjiang, but most are small or medium-sized. So far, large-scale ice and snow sports venues in the province have mainly relied on government investment, which is clearly insufficient to meet social development needs. Fortunately, enthusiasm among large enterprises for getting involved has been gradually heating up in recent years — Harbin Wanda Cultural Tourism City is Wanda Group’s biggest cultural tourism investment project in the northeast region over the next four years. It will include the world’s largest indoor ski resort, the largest movie theater complex in the northeast, the largest hotel group in Heilongjiang, and other cultural and tourism facilities, with a total investment of 20 billion yuan.
The winters in Harbin are extremely cold, with temperatures often dropping below minus 20 degrees Celsius, and even colder than minus 30 degrees Celsius at Yabuli Ski Resort. The severe cold has been the biggest obstacle to cultivating world-renowned ski resorts in Harbin and the entire northeastern region of China. However, indoor ski resorts will no longer be affected by external temperatures, and tourists can enjoy skiing not only in winter but also in spring, summer, and autumn in Harbin.
A person in charge of Harbin Wanda stated that the reason the company is investing heavily in building a large indoor ski resort in a northern city is precisely because of Harbin’s profound ice and snow culture. In the future, tourists will not only be attracted by Harbin’s ice and snow tourism, but may also be drawn by its winter sports.
The unique natural conditions of the northeast have laid the foundation for the existence and development of winter sports, but for a time, the popularity of winter sports in the region declined. In recent years, the “ice and snow fever” has resurged. Jiang Yueqing told reporters that with the implementation of the “Million Youth on Ice and Snow” campaign, along with increased facilities for skating and skiing, the number of participants in winter sports has significantly rebounded. Businesses with keen instincts are naturally seeing the business opportunities hidden behind the growing popularity of winter sports.
Just as construction began on the world’s largest indoor ski resort, the world’s largest single-structure building modeled after a curling stone has already been completed in Harbin Wanda Cultural Tourism City — not long ago, inside this very building, China’s women’s curling team, which had just qualified for the Sochi Winter Olympics, attended the press conference for the Yichun World Women’s Curling Invitational Tournament. This event, now in its third year, received sponsorship from Harbin Wanda Cultural Tourism City this year.
Although China’s men’s and women’s curling teams have achieved impressive international results in just a few years, curling remains a niche sport in China. However, with rising social attention, curling has gradually become more attractive to businesses, which has also strengthened the resolve of northeastern cities like Yichun to boost their urban influence through winter sports.
In fact, winter sports such as snowboarding and freestyle aerials, where Chinese athletes are rapidly improving, have already entered the realm of corporate sports marketing. Since the start of this winter, international competitions in snowboarding and freestyle aerials have been held at Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest,” with major sponsors being large, well-known enterprises.
In the eyes of industry insiders, Beijing and Zhangjiakou’s announcement to bid for the Winter Olympics is an even greater stimulus for the accelerated development of winter sports in China. Whether the bid is successful or not, in the coming years, more companies will turn their attention to China’s winter sports.