Ice, snow industry boosted in competition site of Beijing Winter Olympics

Students practise skiing at a ski resort in Chongli of Zhangjiakou City, north China's Hebei Province, Dec. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Geng Jun)

Zhangjiakou, joint-bidding city of Beijing Winter Olympics, expects to become a multifunctional complex for ice and snow sports.

SHIJIAZHUANG, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The city of Zhangjiakou, which will stage most of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics' skiing events, has seen the robust development of its winter sports industry.

Two winter sports equipment industrial parks, each covering over 200 hectares of land, have been built, seeking cooperation with a dozen European and North American countries with strong industry presence.

According to the city government, a total of 62 ice and snow industry projects with over 34 billion yuan (4.8 billion U.S. dollars) of investment had been introduced by the end of October.

Nine large-scale ski resorts have been put into use citywide, attracting 2.86 million sports fans during the 2018-2019 snow season. As China's largest ski resort cluster, boasting 177 ski tracks with a total length of 164 km, the city has hosted over 170 professional and amateur activities so far.

Besides, the city's colleges and technical schools, over a dozen in number, have opened more than 20 majors relating to ice and snow sports, training individuals for the upcoming Games.

Another 80 primary and secondary schools in the city also offer ice and snow sports courses to cultivate interest among students, the government said.