Snow tourism boom brings brighter future for Xinjiang

URUMQI — For Biregul, a woman from Hemu village in the Altay Mountains in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, winters used to mean uninterrupted silence.

But in 2021, when a ski resort opened just 5 kilometers from her home, things began to change, and the road outside her house gradually grew active.

The road stretches through Altay prefecture, linking the county seat of Burqin with Hemu, where the snow season lasts for more than five months and the snowdrifts are several meters deep. During winter, a steady stream of vehicles with snowboard bags strapped to their shining luggage racks can be seen driving down the road.

The ice-and-snow sports fever sparked by the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics has certainly not faded away, with the mega sporting event leaving a profound effect on the Chinese people's way of life and bringing about tremendous changes to the economy and society.

Xinjiang, which boasts favorable natural conditions and multiple high-standard ski resorts, has taken the starring role in the booming industry to become one of the country's most popular winter tourism destinations. Local people have also found new employment and business opportunities, leading to a better quality of life.

Thanks to its long snow season, good snow quality and diverse terrain, Xinjiang has gained enormous sporting popularity in recent years, attracting tens of thousands of skiing enthusiasts.

Last snow season, Peng Chao rented a wooden house in Hemu and turned it into a work site for his entrepreneurial team involved in ski gear evaluation and popularization of skiing knowledge.

Espying the ballooning development of ice and snow sports in China, Peng concluded that the market will continue to expand and upgrade, and as the number of skiers increases and their skills improve, many more will pursue a higher level of skiing experience. "Their destination will be Altay, and we will be waiting for them here," he said, brimming with confidence.

Mayirbek Chihsi, who comes from a long line of herdsmen and has lived in the mountains of Koktokay township in Altay prefecture's Fuyun county for generations, became the first skiing rescuer in his family.

In 2018, the Kazakh young man completely left nomadic life and started to work at a local ski resort. Boasting experience of skiing on wooden planks covered with fur when he was a kid, Mayirbek Chihsi became a certified ski instructor and a ski rescue worker within two years.

The rescue team Mayirbek Chihsi heads recruited 22 members, all former herdsmen who are skilled in skiing and familiar with the local terrain.

By the end of the 2024-25 ice and snow season, China's ice and snow leisure tourism sector is expected to receive over 520 million visitors, with its revenue exceeding 720 billion yuan ($106 billion), making the sector a core development engine for winter tourism and ice and snow economy, said an annual report on China's ice and snow tourism development, released by the China Tourism Academy.

Taking advantage of this growing momentum, an increasing number of Xinjiang residents plan to expand their businesses and ride the winter sports boom.

The Silkroad Resort, located in the regional capital Urumqi, has provided more than 500 jobs for farmers and herdsmen of more than 20 villages, not to mention more than 300 ski instructors and 114 members of catering service staff.

Biregul from the Hemu village has been running a homestay at her family's wooden house since 2018.

"Years ago, there were few tourists in the winter. Considering the low occupancy rate and the heating and labor costs, we once chose to go out of business," she said.

The opening of the Jikepulin ski resort last snow season increased the number of winter sports enthusiasts seeking lodging in the area.

There are 113 homestays with more than 3,000 beds in operation in Hemu this winter, according to the administrative committee of the Kanas scenic area.

From the 2016-17 snow season to 2021-22, the number of tourists in Altay surged from 1.94 million to 11.9 million, statistics from the prefectural authorities showed.

Xinhua