This article will talk about the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as a ski and snowboard instructor based in China.
I am Aspen, an NZSIA certified ski instructor and APSI certified snowboard instructor who has worked in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and China. I have been working as a ski school manager in China for almost two years since 2020.
I’ve worked in one of the 2022 Winter Olympics venues, Chongli ski resorts, and organized ski trips to all the sizable ski resorts in China. Today, I will share everything I’ve witnessed and experienced about China and Beijing Winter Olympics 2022.
2022 Winter Olympics Overview
The 2022 Winter Olympics, also know as the Beijing 2022, Beijing Winter Olympics, is officially the XXIV Olympic Winter Games (第二十四届冬季奥林匹克运动会). It is an international winter multi-sport event.
During the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur in 2015, Beijing received 44 votes and was elected as the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
This would be the 1st Winter Olympics in China. Because of the international COVID-19 pandemic, this would also be a very special Winter Olympics.
Where are the Winter Olympics 2022
To be exact, Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 will be held in Beijing and venues in the neighboring towns Chongli and Yanqing.
There will be 26 venues (including training venues)
- All Ice events, snowboard Big Air, Freestyle skiing Big Air, will be held in Beijing.
- Alpine skiing, bobsleigh, luge, skeleton will be held in Yanqing District.
- All other skiing events, including biathlon, cross-country, freestyle skiing, Nordic combined (ski jumping), Nordic combined (cross-country), snowboarding (slopestyle, halfpipe), will be held in the Chongli area, this is also where we usually work during winter times.
When is Winter Olympics 2022?
Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 will begin on 4 February 2022 (Friday) and ends on 20 February 2022 (Sunday).
China and 2022 Beijing Olympic
Since China was elected as the host of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, the government has spent a lot of effort promoting the winter snowsports and ice sports industry. As a ski and snowboard instructor, though, I would rather just talk about snowsports.
When China was applying for the hosting positing of Winter Olympics, they made a promise “promoting 300 million population to enjoy ice and snowsports (三亿人上冰雪)”. And they made it. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, 346 million people have participated in snowsports in China.
What has China done for Preparing Winter Olympics?
It is impressive what China has done to promote the snowsport industry. In winter times, our ski school will also operate in Chongli, and it is a sizeable ski resort with proper management. Nice accommodation, great good, very well developed traffic network as well.
The Winter Olympic Venues – Chongli Ski Resorts
Chongli was recommended by NY Times as one of the most recommended places to go in 2019.
During the 2015-16 winter season, before China was chosen as the host of the Winter Olympics, there were only four ski resorts around the area, with only 0.48 million ski passes sold.
By 21 Dec 2020, there were 7 ski resorts, with 169 slopes, over 1.08 million ski passes sold. The total number of staff employed was over 30000.
Indoor Ski Resorts Development in China
Many Chinese people live in the South, and there is no snow at all. Many indoor ski resorts and dry slope snowsports practicing centers were built to promote skiing and snowboarding in Southern China.
The sizeable indoor ski resorts already built are Harbin indoor ski resort, Chengdu indoor ski resort, Guangzhou indoor ski resort.
Until now, Guangzhou indoor ski resorts are the most popular ones, they have the highest record of over 7000 visitors per day.
In the upcoming future, there will be more sizeable indoor ski resorts established:
- Shanghai Indoor Ski Resort
- Shenzhen Indoor Ski Resort
- Zhaoqing Indoor Ski Resort (This would be the world’s upcoming largest ski resort built on an actual mountain)
These indoor ski resorts have contributed a lot in promoting China’s ski and snowboard industry, they have also become bases for young Chinese ski and snowboard athletes.
Other than indoor ski resorts built in Southern China, lots of new ski resorts are also developed.
Northern Xinjiang has become a very popular skiing destination since 2019. Several new ski resorts developed: Koktokay, Hemu, Powder snow park. A lot of ski resorts are, expanding too.
For example, General Mountain ski resort in the north Altay used to be a small resort locating next to the city. Very small, chair lifts are slow, gears are old.
After several years of expanding, General mountain ski resort is now a ski resort with decent size and with high-speed chair lift. Hum, great food too!
Athletes Training
Other than all the infrastructure development, the standard of Chinese skiers and snowboarders has dramatically improved. Many international trainers are invited to China to train the athletes.
Many Chinese snowsports athletes were to Europe, the US, and Japan, to learn the latest knowledge and skills.
Eileen Gu, the first duel winner of Freeski Halfpipe and Freeski Slopestyle at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2021, and the first woman to land a forward double cork 1440, will represent China at the Winter Olympic 2022.
“I hope to encourage people through my participation in extreme sports and my participation in extreme sports in China and to compete in China.”
New Ski Competitions – Super Orienteering Ski Open
Super Orienteering Ski Open is a super cool competition invented by China, it’s basically a combination of Orienteering competition and Skiing, competitors are required to form a mixed-gender team for the match, and they choose to compete with skis or snowboards.
Control points will be spread all over the ski resort, and athletes need to find those out and have all of them punched, and the result will be determined according to when the last member of the team reaches the finish line.
Some control points need to be punched by all team members, while some only require one of the team members to punch.
The whole competition is about discussing, deciding, looking for the control points, skiing/snowboarding, climbing, and running around the ski resorts, on the slopes, in the tree runs, or deep powder snow.