China Expected To Open 50th Indoor Snow Centre This Year
Research by the online publication IndoorSnowNews.com has found that China now has 44 indoor snow centres, with six more in the final stages of construction and expected to open by the end of the year.
It means that the country with the world’s second biggest population will reach 50 centres open bringing snow sports to tens of millions of people, two years earlier than expected.
There are currently 44 indoor snow centres operating in 15 of China’s 23 provinces, 2 of its 4 municipalities and 2 of its 5 autonomous regions. The province of Zhejiang has the most indoor snow centres with 8 operating or under construction. Hunan has 6 centres and Jiangsu 4.
The 44 centres include six of the 10 largest worldwide, including the planet’s three biggest, boasting up to 70,000 square metres (17 acres) of indoor snow space each.
Many of the centres have opened in the last six years as part of a national drive to get more than 300,000 people to try snow or ice sports ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics staged in the country. However the oldest remaining centre dates back to 2003.
A further five Chinese centres have opened and closed again in the past two decades and dozen more facilities are planned.
The 44 centres represent more than a third of the 125 indoor snow centres currently operating in around 35 countries on six continents worldwide. It’s by far the most of any country with India the only country in double figures – although most of its centres are small ‘snow experience’ rooms rather than indoor snow and boarding slopes. Japan got into double figures for the number of centres it had open in the 1990s but now has just a few remaining.
Although China has a huge landmass and vast population, much of the county where the great majority of the population live has a subtropical climate and rarely see snow. The northerly areas do get some snowfall and are bitterly cold in winter, but are sparsely populated and a ong trip for many Chinese people so the indoor snow centres, along with hundreds of dry slopes, make snow sports affordable and accessible to tens of millions of Chinese people.
IndoorSnowNews.com has published the China Indoor Snow Centres Guide 2023, a nearly 120 page, 17,000 word document detailing the 55 centres that have been built or under construction in China and many others planned, including ideas that are still live and those that have been dropped. The report also compares centres by various metrics such as indoor snow area, age, location and slope length. The report, which also includes around 100 images, is available as a PDF for €120 ($135 USD / £100)
