The Fulong Resort is one of the 5 ski resorts in Zhangjiakou district which will host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Presentation of this recent resort which has turned the local economy upside down.

Will Xi Jinping keep his bet and manage to put 300 million skiers on the slopes in 2022? In view of the data he is capable of doing so.

Let’s go back in time … until 2000, there was only one ski resort decent in China. Between 2000 and 2010, they grew to 200 and today it has 568! In 1996 there were at most 10,000 Chinese skiers and in 2015 there were 12.5 million. Some experts say that the growth of the winter sports market is equal to that experienced in Europe and North America since 1975, but condensed over only a few years. With the coming of the Winter Olympics in 2022 and considering these exponential curves, all bets are off because the Chinese market could well surpass them! China has become the second region with the most ski areas in the world, behind the Alps, which have more than a third of the world’s resorts.

While in Europe and North America the market has been mature for several years and is hardly evolving or even regressing in some countries due to the aging of their population, European and American ski resort designers see it as a boon to sell their know-how and all want a piece of the Chinese cake. From « mountain hunters » to snow cannons, cables cars, grooming machines and even instructors or technicians, China is very interested because it has little expertise in this field.

Partnerships are also established between ski resorts. For example, the Swiss ski area LAAX has joined forces with the Chinese resort Genting Resort Secret Garden. Thanks to this, the Chinese resort benefits from the brand image of Swiss skiing and in return, the Swiss hope to attract Chinese customers (when the Covid is behind us!). Laax is far from being the only ski resort to have such hopes and for example the Compagnie des Alpes which manages among others La Plagne, Tignes, Val d’Isere, Les 2 Alpes, or Les Arcs cooperates with Chinese resorts.

 Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Fulong Resort, one of the 5 resorts in Zhangjiakou District

Zhangjiakou is about 250 km northwest of Beijing. It is located in a vast mountainous area but not very high. The highest peak is 2000 meters while the basin is 1200 meters. It is a semi-arid region and unfortunately for skiing … there is almost no snowfall! On the other hand, in winter the temperatures are freezing and during the winter the temperatures never go beyond -10 degrees at the best of the day.

10 years ago, Zhangjiakou was located in one of the poorest regions of China. But in recent years, the Olympic Games project has come and gone, and the city has been chosen to host a large part of the ski events. It used to take 4 hours to get there from Beijing, but now the high speed train gets you there in less than an hour, highways have been built and although the city is still under construction because of the Olympic project, the rich Beijing clientele is now flocking there.

But skiing is reserved for an elite clientele. Indeed, it is necessary to count on average about 50 euros per day and per person between the ski pass and the ski rental. This is more or less the same price as in Europe, but for China, this is a lot of money and these prices are clearly reserved for the upper class.

The ski slopes

Zhangjiakou is clearly not the Alps and the slopes are closer to the ones of the Jura and they are in most cases quite easy. That said, for a resort entirely created artificially, it still offers 15 km of slopes and there is enough to have fun for a few days. Now, from there to spend your days non-stop on the slopes for a week, boredom can lurk. It is rare that Chinese people spend more than 2 days in a row skiing and they prefer to enjoy other types of activities in parallel, the number one being shopping! That’s why the streets of Zhangjiakou are filled with dozens of sports stores offering the most prestigious brands, most of them international. But as far as activities related to the pleasures of the snowy mountains are considered, there is no snow outside the slopes, so there is no time for snowshoeing or dog sledding. 

However, with extreme temperatures, the impression of winter is there and even if the landscape is rather confusing with these arid mountains which surround the station, one could be mistaken and think that the snow is natural! But this one comes from an army of snow cannons placed all along the slopes and it must be said that its quality is exceptional, as soft as powdered sugar and without any icy patch.

The chalet bar

And yes! When you say ski resort, you must have a chalet in the middle of the slopes! It is not strictly speaking a mountain chalet atmosphere and the place is more like a trendy city bar. But it is spacious, surrounded by bay windows and it has a high end restaurant and a brasserie, and the music is good!

And what about the organization and reception of tourists?

It will be difficult to find equipment rental stores in town, however, you can almost go in your pajamas to the Tourist Welcome Center of the resort and come out equipped from head to toe, all under the Rossignol brand. Hundreds of lockers also allow you to leave your belongings. 

Of course, this is also where you book your teacher! Chances are that they are employed by the Flower ski company which operates in Zhangjiakou. It is historically one of the first professional ski schools in China and now has 150 instructors. The company plans to recruit 500 instructors by next year!

In the extension of the Tourist Center, we come across a huge shopping mall where sports stores and restaurants are waiting for tourists, while outside a multitude of small restaurants offer meals and sweets to eat on the go.

The real estate frenzy

Of course in Zhangjiakou there is a plethora of hotel offers and it is not going to stop anytime soon! The whole city is invaded by new constructions and the real estate developers are snatching the land. 

Just next to the slopes, a building complex caught our attention because it has all the characteristics of a small Swiss or Austrian city. If from far away the buildings can make illusion, especially if you go in the direction of the snowy slopes, from closer and facing the surrounding arid mountains, it becomes more difficult to believe you are in the Tyrol.

Yet everything is there. From the fake flowers on the balconies to the little weeping angels and even an fake church, everything is ready for an motionless journey!