In just a few years, the number of ski resorts in Shandong has surged sharply. There are currently 13 operational resorts, and this growth trend continues. At the end of last year, Yu Chong, director of the Shandong Provincial Tourism Bureau, said in a media interview that Shandong’s goal is to build 40 to 50 ski resorts.
Does Shandong really need so many ski resorts?
In interviews, both industry insiders and experts said that although ski resorts can boost Shandong’s winter tourism market, the number of ski resorts should ultimately be determined by the market.
The “Feverish” Ski Craze
On the morning of the 8th, a reporter drove to the Wohushan Ski Resort, about 20 kilometers from downtown Jinan.
Along Provincial Highway S103, there are numerous billboards advertising three ski resorts located in the southern mountainous area. After turning onto Beidaogou Village from S103, signs along the road guide vehicles toward the ski resorts.
At the parking lot of Wohushan Ski Resort, the reporter roughly counted over 70 cars parked there, and it was not yet 9:30 a.m.
In the ski equipment rental hall, the reporter saw many visitors gathering around to listen to staff explain safety precautions, while the counter was crowded with people waiting to collect their skis and boots. Through the large glass windows of the hall, one could see many visitors already enjoying skiing on the slopes.
“Today is quite busy. Weekends have more visitors than weekdays, and we just received a few tour groups,” said Shao Haiming, manager of the customer service department at the ski resort, with a slightly apologetic tone. According to him, Wohushan Ski Resort is fully equipped and features the widest ski slope in China (over 160 meters), capable of accommodating 5,000 skiers at the same time.
Ms. Sun, a resident of Jinan who came to ski, told the reporter that skiing has always been a characteristic winter tourism activity in cold northern regions. Previously, Jinan residents who wanted to experience it usually had to travel far to the northeast. “Since Jinan got its own ski resorts, I come here to ski several times every winter, especially the thrill of speeding down from the top.” At the resort, the reporter noticed many beginners who often fell after just a few steps but simply brushed the snow off, stood up, and laughed it off.
Shao Haiming said that besides Jinan residents, there are also many visitors from other places. “Our furthest reach includes Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province.”
Earlier, the reporter also noticed in the parking lot that besides locally registered vehicles from Jinan, there were also cars with license plates from Dezhou, Jining, Rizhao, Binzhou, and other cities within the province, as well as a few from Anhui and Jiangsu.
Beyond economic benefits, Shao Haiming said ski resorts can extend the tourism season in Jinan’s southern mountainous area and significantly boost local tourism development.
In recent years, suburban tourism in Jinan’s southern mountainous area has been popular, but the peak tourist seasons are highly uneven—booming in summer but nearly deserted in winter—severely restricting local tourism development. Senior tourism professionals noted that most scenic spots in the southern mountainous area face similar issues to varying degrees, making the benefits of developing winter skiing tourism obvious.
“Now even cities like Qingzhou, Tengzhou, and Anqiu have ski resorts, and Zibo even has two. Can you say the ski craze isn’t real?” Shao Haiming remarked.
The Energy-Intensive Nature of Skiing
Although ski resorts are popular among citizens and tourists, their high energy consumption is inevitable.
Ski resort operations require low temperatures, and the longer the period of sub-zero temperatures in winter, the better it is for ski resorts. Information obtained by the reporter from the Shandong Meteorological Bureau shows that the average duration of temperatures below 0°C in Jinan during winter is 70 to 100 days. But for ski resorts, having around 80 days of normal operation is already considered good.
“Global warming has had a significant impact on us. In the past, our operating period could reach about 85 days, but now it’s only around 70 days,” Shao Haiming said.
It is understood that generally, the snow in ski resorts is artificially made, and to ensure safety, its thickness is about 1 meter.
The reporter roughly calculated that if the snow thickness is around 1 meter, then for a 100,000-square-meter ski resort, approximately 100,000 cubic meters of snow need to be produced. Taking Jinan’s existing three ski resorts as an example, the total area of the three resorts is about 350,000 square meters. Each square meter of ski slope requires about 0.6 tons of water for artificial snow, meaning the three resorts would consume over 200,000 tons of water.
Although Jinan is known as the “City of Springs,” it still faces serious water shortages, with per capita water resources only 290 cubic meters—less than one-seventh of the national average. The latest data shows that Jinan’s per capita daily water usage is 95 liters. By this calculation, it would be equivalent to over 6,000 Jinan residents not using any water for an entire year to supply these three ski resorts.
Not just Jinan, but all of Shandong faces water scarcity. According to data from the Shandong Provincial Department of Water Resources, Shandong suffers from severe water shortages and uneven distribution across time and space, with per capita water resources at 334 cubic meters—less than one-sixth of the national average. Gao Xixing, head of the Water Resources Department at the Shandong Provincial Department of Water Resources, explained that Shandong uses only 1% of the country’s water resources to irrigate 6% of its arable land, produce 8% of its grain, support 7% of its population, and sustain 10% of its GDP. “Our province’s water resource development and utilization are approaching their limits.”
Ski resorts are not only major water consumers but also heavy electricity users.
In addition to the initial snowmaking, ski resorts also need to replenish snow continuously based on weather conditions and slope wear. A single snowmaking machine consumes about 30 kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour, and a ski resort typically has anywhere from three or four to over ten such machines. Hence, electricity consumption is astonishing.
How Many Ski Resorts Are Really Needed?
According to the expectations of tourism authorities, Shandong plans to build 40 to 50 ski resorts, meaning 27 to 37 more will be added. On average, each of the 17 prefecture-level cities will need to build 1 to 2 additional resorts.
Wang Degang, director of the Tourism Department at Shandong University’s School of Management, said in an interview on the 10th that skiing, as a sporty and recreational activity, plays a significant role in boosting winter tourism economics and should be actively developed. At the same time, skiing also helps adjust the structure of winter tourism products and enrich the variety of winter activities. “Currently, the ‘Winter Festival’ is the best-developed winter tourism project in Shandong nationwide. Appropriately developing entertainment activities like skiing to achieve a certain scale is very necessary.”
However, Wang Degang said it is difficult to draw a conclusion on the appropriate number, which should be determined through market competition.
Shao Haiming also stated that Shandong is not very suitable for building too many ski resorts. “Take Jinan as an example—there are already three ski resorts there, and it can at most accommodate one more. If there were any more, it would become overly saturated.”
Jiang Weidong from the Planning and Development Division of the Shandong Provincial Tourism Bureau told reporters that the current focus of winter tourism projects lies in hot springs, skiing, and cultural activities. As for whether there are plans for the expected number of ski resorts, he said, “There is just an idea to develop around forty to fifty ski resorts, but there is no specific plan yet.”
A person in charge surnamed Li from the Forest Farm Management Section of the Shandong Provincial Agriculture Bureau told reporters that logging and developing ski resort projects within mountain forest farms would definitely have an adverse impact on vegetation and could also cause varying degrees of soil erosion. “If logging and related projects are carried out in state-owned forest farms, approval must be obtained from the forestry department. However, there have been no such applications or development records in Jinan’s state-owned forest farms so far.”
It is reported that if a large number of ski resorts built in a rush ultimately prove unsustainable, cleaning up the resulting “mess” will be even more difficult.
The construction of ski resorts has strict requirements for terrain slope, and “cutting trees and leveling mountain tops” cannot be completely avoided. The associated auxiliary facilities will also occupy a significant amount of woodland. Once the ecological environment is damaged by such construction, and if investors abandon the sites afterward, restoring vegetation and preventing soil erosion on these barren slopes will definitely not be an easy task.
Pan Zhuang, a person in charge of a landscaping company in Jinan, told reporters that artificial snowmaking can damage the soil and affect the living environment of vegetation. When visitors walk on the ski runs, they may cause soil compaction, which can affect plant growth within the ski run area after the snow season, and areas with steeper slopes are prone to soil erosion.
As an entertainment-oriented sports facility and business venue, ski resorts improve people's quality of life. But given our national conditions, how and how many ski resorts should be built in water-scarce areas is something that should be approached with the utmost caution.
