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There are now more than 200 ski resorts
in China, up from none a decade ago.
Tremendous growth
Lu Jian, an Oxford-trained economist, is seeing the ski resorts
he has created in China going through tremendous growth as the new
prosperous Chinese middle class takes to the snow.
‘Ten years ago, only 500 people in China could ski and they were
all professional athletes,’ said who founded Nanshan Ski Village
after being inspired by a visit to the US resort Vail. ‘This year,
5 million Chinese will visit ski resorts.’
New two day weekend
Lu made his money in the early 1990s trading commodities futures
in Chicago for a Chinese state company. He felt that as his homeland's
economy grew, it would follow the example of South Korea and skiing
would take off.
But the tipping point came when China switched from a six-day week
to a five-day week in 1995. ‘All of a sudden, everyone had a two-day
weekend,’ he said. ‘Two days off! With nothing to do!’
Artificial snow
Lu opened his first resort in 1995 in Heilongjiang province in the
far northeast, raising capital from relatives and friends, including
other Chinese who studied in Britain at Oxford or Cambridge. But
while Heilongjiang had the snow, Beijing has the money, so he opened
Nanshan in 2001, with machines to provide the snow that nature often
won't.
A four-hour lift ticket plus equipment rental at Nanshan costs $24
- more than a week's wages for the average urban worker and pricey
even for the engineers, stockbrokers and other professionals on
the slope. Despite this, each weekend, thousands crowd Nanshan Ski
Village.
Ski uniform rental
Since few in this country own ski clothes, the resort rents jackets
as well as equipment. As a result, nearly everyone wears matching
purple an ironic echo of the decades when the masses all wore the
same green Mao jacket and cap.
Nanshan cost $6 million to build and has not broken even yet, though
Lu said it is making money. He has big plans. ‘My goal,’ he said,
‘is to create another Vail.’
[Source: Associated
Press]
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