By Xinyi Wu

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Some Chinese skiers are travelling to an unexpected destination to take part in the winter sport: the hot and humid tech hub of Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong province, during next month’s eight-day National Day holiday, also known as the “golden week”.
Qianhai Huafa Snow World, which is being touted as the world’s largest indoor ski resort, is set to open there on Monday as authorities look to tie the winter sports economy to efforts to boost consumption.
The 10-hectare (24.7 acre) indoor ski area at the resort will feature five ski slopes, including one with an 83 metre (272.3 feet) vertical drop.
“It’s great that they built this. Skiers won’t have to sit through boring summers any more,” said Xie Siya, a 30-year-old resident of Guangzhou, Guangdong’s provincial capital, who plans to visit the resort during the holiday. A maximum temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) has been forecast for the break.
Like many other Chinese people, she started skiing three years ago following a surge in the popularity of winter sports fuelled by the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
She now hits the slopes at least once a month, spending around 1,000 yuan (US$140) at indoor ski resorts or upwards of 5,000 yuan a month on trips to open-air slopes during the winter.
That kind of spending is exactly what Beijing hopes to encourage. As the world’s second-largest economy shifts towards a consumption-driven model, China increasingly sees the sports sector as a source of economic vigour – with winter sports a major pillar.
Most Chinese are still beginners when it comes to doing these sports
Sienna Parulis-Cook, Dragon Trail
In a push to build a 7 trillion yuan (US$981.5 billion) sports sector by 2030, China aims to ramp up access to ice and snow sports – once naturally limited to northern regions that receive heavy snowfall in the winter – across the country, according to a directive issued by the State Council this month.
A report released by the country’s sports administration last month showed that, as of April, China was home to over 700 outdoor ski resorts and 79 indoor ones – including five in Guangdong. The number of indoor ski resorts across the nation was up almost 34 per cent year on year, and another 16 were under construction.
“Despite the rapid development of ski resorts and interest in winter sports, most Chinese are still beginners when it comes to doing these sports,” said Sienna Parulis-Cook, marketing and communications director at the Dragon Trail business consultancy.
“Another thing that sets the Chinese winter sports travel market apart is that Chinese travellers generally are not going to go all the way to Europe, for example, just to ski.”
Instead, they often wanted to see a variety of things rather than spend an entire week at a single resort, she said.
Parulis-Cook said that meant people in the south of the country might be more interested in trying a day of skiing or snowboarding if they did not have to travel too far from home and could combine it with other activities.
Guangdong’s ski resorts are also attracting consumers from across the border in Hong Kong.
Xie said Guangzhou Sunac Snow World, another major indoor ski resort in the region, had welcomed an increasing number of Hongkongers in recent years.

“We call it Hong Kong Sunac Snow World sometimes,” she joked, adding that there were often long queues to get on the slopes on days that were public holidays in Hong Kong.
A continuing rise in the number of Hongkongers flocking north to shop and dine has boosted Shenzhen’s post-pandemic economic recovery.
Hong Kong residents spent 12.27 billion yuan in non-cash transactions in Shenzhen last year, according to the Shenzhen branch of the People’s Bank of China. That was a year-on-year increase of 81 per cent and accounted for nearly 62 per cent of all non-cash transactions by foreign visitors to the city.
Most of the spending by Hongkongers occurred on weekends and holidays, with the central bank saying it had created a “weekend economy” that has become a key driver of consumption.
Some Hong Kong residents are eagerly awaiting the opening of Qianhai Huafa Snow World, which will be only about an hour’s subway ride away after they pass through the Lok Ma Chau border checkpoint.
“I’ve always wanted to try skiing. Doing it in Shenzhen is convenient and not too expensive,” said Ada Lau, adding that she plans to visit the resort once it opens.
“I already visit Shenzhen every few weeks anyway. It’s great to have a new experience to try.”
Prices at Qianhai Huafa Snow World will start from 348 yuan for three hours on the beginner slopes in the off-season.
Spending on winter sports-related activities rose over 25 per cent year on year last winter to more than 187.5 billion yuan, according to China’s sports administration.