Skiing Upsurge

Olympic winter games spur growth of snow economy in Beijing suburbs

- Hu Fan

It took only one year for Zhang Kai, a villager in Yanqing District in northwest Beijing, to triple his monthly income, and his job is fascinating to many young people: a ski instructor.

A junior college graduate, Zhang used to make a living by doing odd jobs as an electrician. The monthly income of around 2,000 yuan ($309.8) could barely support the family. The life-changer came when the district initiated a training program for ski instructors in the 2018-2019 winter season. A fan of the sport, Zhang returned home from another district of Beijing after hearing about the recruitment and became one of the 160 students of the program.

The program was part of Yanqing’s efforts to form a pool of practitioners of snow sports to support the Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games to be held in 2022. The district is one of three competition zones for the events, where 21 gold medals for the Olympic Winter Games and 30 medals for the Paralympic Winter Games will be up for grabs.

Zhang finished the training successfully and obtained certificates to become an instructor. Now he works in a local ski resort and earns around 30,000 ($4,647) yuan in one snow season. “It is the Olympic Games that has helped me realize my dream of a skiing career,” he said.

Powerful driver

The events will be cohosted by Beijing and the city of Zhangjiakou in the neighboring Hebei Province, with Beijing being the venue for ice sports and the other for snow sports. Yanqing was assigned to assist Zhangjiakou with the snow sports.