International winter sports experts and officials gathered yesterday in northwestern Beijing's Yanqing district, one of three sites for the 2022 Winter Olympics, to share insights on the winter sports industry in China and elsewhere.
"Yanqing will become a famous place of winter sports in the world, as the pictures of the Winter Olympics and its landscape spread all over the world in the future," predicted Karl Stoss, chairman of the Austrian Olympic Committee and a member of International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Stoss is in Beijing to attend the World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo 2018, which opened on Sept. 10 and closes this Saturday. He spoke highly of Yanqing's preparation and believed it would transform the power of ice and snow into a passion for them in the future.
To gear up for the Games, and build itself into an influential place in winter sports activities, Yanqing has been cooperating with domestic and foreign sports partners in regard to resource matching, snow product R&D, ski resort management and tourism and leisure in recent years.
Expo delegates believe sustainable development of ice and snow industry can be achieved in China, as the sport culture is changing ahead of 2022 Winter Olympics.
Winter sports used to be seen as foreign and unaffordable in this country, but more and more Chinese have begun to take to the slopes amid growing public enthusiasm after the country won the bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
In addition, the Chinese government is also endeavoring to get more people onto skis and skates in various ways.
Gao Yunchao, vice director of the Beijing Olympic City Development Association, said the annual winter sport expo could bring more advanced ice-and-snow industrial facilities, technologies and concepts to China, providing impetus for winter sports development.
Gao revealed more than 500 international brands presented their latest winter sports products at the expo to support Beijing's preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
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