SHIJIAZHUANG, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- On Wednesday at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, China's freeski aerials star Xu Mengtao soared through a breathtaking series of jumps to defend her Olympic title, delivering a performance reminiscent of her historic triumph in Beijing four years ago -- a moment still vivid in millions of memories.
Half a world away, in Genting Snow Park in Chongli District of Zhangjiakou City, north China's Hebei Province, the very slopes where Xu made history in 2022 hum with life all year round.
Today, Genting Snow Park, some 200 kilometers northwest of Beijing, hosts more competitions than ever, with events up 30 percent annually since the Beijing Winter Olympics, and welcomes around 6,000 visitors daily during the 2025-2026 snow season starting in November.
After the Beijing Games concluded four years ago, the resort faced a test of turning a fleeting moment of glory into a lasting legacy.
To woo recreational skiers, the resort redesigned three of its six Olympic courses, lowering the difficulty without diminishing the thrill. Now, 45 trails stretch across the park, with 42 catering to beginners, seasoned skiers and thrill seekers alike.
For regular visitors like Zhang Ye, 61, the convenience is unmatched. A retiree from Beijing, she skis every week. "It's just an hour by high-speed train and 10 minutes by shuttle to the resort. It's incredibly convenient," she said as she strapped on her skis.
Chongli itself has transformed to meet the demand for surging visitors. In 2025, more than 10 million tourists passed through the district. Express buses now connect Beijing airports and South Railway Station directly to the resort, while free shuttles link train stations to the slopes, largely eliminating the "last mile" problem.
Yet the district's ambitions extend beyond winter. With cool temperatures and more than 70 percent forest coverage, Chongli has cultivated year-round appeal through summer and autumn activities such as mountain biking, hiking and camping, while repurposing Olympic venues into outdoor parks and educational camps.
Snow Ruyi Ski Resort, for instance, installed a sightseeing cable car and a forested downhill ride that enables visitors to decide the speed.
Summer tourism in 2025 alone drew 5.1 million visitors to Chongli, more than in the winter season, generating 4.42 billion yuan (636.9 million U.S. dollars) in tourism revenue.
About 30,000 people engage in winter sports or tourism business in Chongli, and 80 percent of them have work to do around the year, official data showed.
Chongli epitomizes a broader picture of China's rapidly expanding ice and snow industry. According to the China Ice and Snow Economy Development Report 2025, the sector grew from 364.7 billion yuan in 2016 to over 1 trillion yuan in 2025, with winter tourism participation exceeding 300 million people for three consecutive seasons.
The lasting enthusiasm has fostered a full value chain encompassing equipment manufacturing, event operations, training services, and tourism.
About a two-hour drive from Chongli, the Xuanhua Ice and Snow Equipment Industrial Park has leveraged this momentum. Inside the park, Lidakis, a Chinese snowboard brand founded in 2003, has its warehouse filled with boards, boots, and other gear for both domestic resorts and overseas customers.
"Twenty years ago, snowboards just entered the Chinese market, and few people were buying them," said 68-year-old Jin Huiyuan, CEO of Lidakis.
"Take children's boards, for example. Before 2015, 100 boards would sell over three years. By 2016, 3,000 wasn't enough. By the 2022 Winter Olympics, even 10,000 couldn't meet demand," she said.
With the rise of online live-streaming, Jin is now expanding Lidakis's direct-to-consumer sales channels.
"The current number of orders I receive per month amounts to what I handled in the entire snow season during my early years in this field," said Qu Xiaotong, a 32-year-old ski photographer, noting that the growing winter sports fan base in China has been the main driver of his business.
"The growth of winter sports in China, especially after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, has changed everything -- my work, the industry, and even how people experience snow. It's like the Olympics never ended," Qu said. Enditem
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