Without experiencing the thrill of speed, more people turn "skiing" into "playing in the snow," making it difficult to expand the true enthusiast community; the overall costs of transportation, dining, and accommodation remain high, still far from the reach of the middle-income group. There is much to explore in organically integrating skiing with national fitness to make winter "chasing ice and snow" a mass fashion.
The enthusiast community is hard to expand
"Many ski resorts around Beijing are packed on weekends and holidays, with the slopes crowded with people—you can't even ski at speed. Most people just take photos, fall around, or play for fun," said Gao Xuedong, director of the Mass Ice and Snow Department at the Winter Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China. It's hard for people to truly enjoy the fun of skiing, and they rarely return after one visit, making it difficult to build a stable community of enthusiasts.
It is understood that there are currently more than 450 ski resorts of various sizes in China, with both quantity and quality gradually improving. "The overall quality of domestic ski resorts still needs to be enhanced, and management levels lag far behind those abroad, incomparable to some ski resorts in Japan and South Korea," said Gao Xuedong. Due to the high investment costs of ski resorts, the annual operating period is only about 100 days. Most people are busy with work on weekdays, so resorts get extremely crowded on weekends. He gave an example: a resort might prepare 6,000 sets of ski equipment, which could all be rented out on a weekend. To maximize profits within the limited time, resorts often overlook whether the slopes can handle such crowds.
On one hand, limited venue resources struggle to meet demand; on the other, beginners generally lack proper instruction, fail to grasp the technical essentials, and mostly ski for fun on their own, finding it hard to truly develop an interest. Shan Zhaojian, China’s first skiing champion, explained that China currently lacks systematic training for ski instructors—there are only about 500 certified instructors nationwide, while the total number of employees in ski resorts is around 10,000 to 20,000. Many uncertified instructors also teach, but two problems exist: a shortage of qualified instructors and high fees for hiring them.
Reporters at the Beidahu Ski Resort, the competition venue for the snow events of the 12th National Winter Games, found that there were no dedicated ski instructors. Instead, some professional team coaches occasionally offer beginner courses during their regular training. On the morning of January 7, reporters heard an announcement in the ski equipment hall at Beidahu: as the Winter Games snow events proceed, beginner classes are also being offered, with each student paying 120 yuan and a minimum of five participants required to start a class...
After more than a decade, the domestic skiing enthusiast community has continued to grow but has now reached a new bottleneck. To further popularize skiing among the public, efforts must focus on cultivating genuine interest in skiing rather than just "playing in the snow."
Comprehensive supporting costs remain high
Transportation, meals, accommodation, ski equipment rentals, tickets... Zhao Guobin, a resident of Jilin City, calculated the cost of skiing for reporters: on holidays, driving from Jilin City to Beidahu costs at least 100 yuan round-trip in gasoline. For a two-day trip, the average price is 1,000 yuan per person for a premium package, 680 yuan for a beginner package, 50 yuan to rent ski clothing, 35 yuan for goggles, 30 yuan for a helmet, 40 yuan for protective gear, 35 yuan for gloves (or hat), 888 yuan for a standard double room, and about 50 yuan per meal per person...
"These are just additional costs. If it’s your first time, you’ll need to buy equipment like skis, which drives the cost even higher," said Zhao Guobin. He doesn’t ski often—two or three times a winter if he’s lucky, usually on weekends or holidays, for a day or two each time. Without spending at least 3,000 to 5,000 yuan, it’s not enough, a consumption level that the average middle-income group in Jilin City simply can’t afford.
Shan Zhaojian analyzed that many domestic ski resorts are actually operating at a loss. The huge investment costs and limited operating periods put almost all resorts under survival pressure, forcing them to make as much money as possible during the limited time. Aside from expensive equipment purchases and rentals, other supporting services like dining and accommodation also tend to be several times more expensive than usual. "Ski resorts have their own dilemmas—continuous losses make it hard to sustain operations," he said.
At outdoor equipment stores in Jilin City, reporters saw that a simple snow hat or pair of gloves costs over 100 yuan, an outdoor outfit ranges from 3,000 to 5,000 yuan, and a set of gear can easily go for several thousand or even tens of thousands of yuan. Store clerks noted that these are still considered mid-to-low-range equipment. Liu Tian, manager of Changchun’s Leisure Island outdoor equipment store, said: "There’s little domestically produced snow gear in China, and the quality is generally low. Professional athletes opt for imported gear—a basic professional ski board costs around 10,000 yuan, and when you add a helmet, protective gear, and goggles, the investment is very high."
According to ski resort websites, a single-day cable car ticket at Beidahu Ski Resort is 300 yuan on weekends. At Yabuli Sunshine Resort Ski Resort, the regular ticket price is 700 yuan for the whole day. For accommodation, a standard double room at the Beidahu Asian Games Village Hotel costs 488 yuan per night, while a standard suite at the Yabuli International Convention and Exhibition Center in the Yabuli Ski Resort costs as much as 1,180 yuan per night on regular days. By the living standards of second-tier cities in China, these prices are undeniably high-end.
Many experts suggest that to make the skiing industry more accessible to the public, the long-term solution lies in combining government-led public initiatives with commercial operations. Shan Zhaojian suggested: if the government can invest in building stadiums, why not in ski resorts? Currently, relying solely on commercial operations makes it difficult to truly reduce the public’s skiing costs. Only by gradually incorporating public welfare elements into skiing can the deeper popularization of recreational skiing in China accelerate.
"The domestic skiing industry currently pursues high-end technology and equipment. Instead of enjoying skiing, people form distorted consumption views," said Shan Zhaojian. "In the future, skiing should focus more on creating a cultural concept—combining skiing, admiring snow, and playing in the snow to cultivate sentiment, turning skiing into a true enjoyment that promotes fitness, relaxes the mind, and connects with nature."
