Nation's frozen assets keep paying dividends

"To be honest, we had our concerns (before Beijing 2022) that the rapid development of the winter sports industry would slow down after the Olympics," Zhang Li, co-president of Asian Digital Group, a market researcher and business incubator, told China Daily during a winter sports forum held at the NASC on Friday.

"Yet, here we are, witnessing an even stronger boom than we could have imagined a couple of years ago. Winter sports development in our country has ushered in a new era since the closing of Beijing 2022.

"Initiated by a government push to host the Beijing Winter Olympics, the development of ice and snow sports, and all related leisure activities, has now been able to stand on its own, driven by the demand from an emerging consumer market."

Zhang's sentiment is backed up by the latest figures.

Since the beginning of November, 934 ski resorts, across 31 provinces and municipalities in China, had received 151 million visits by Feb 4, a 27.8 percent increase from the same period a year ago, according to data from the General Administration of Sport of China.

Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, which hosted the 9th Asian Winter Games earlier this month, has turned out to be the most popular tourism destination this winter, after having accommodated over 16 million skiers and snowboarders over the past three months, a 7.3 percent rise from last winter.