Justin Downes, President of Axis Leisure Management spoke to CGTN Europe about the Asian Winter Games and China's snow economy.
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00:00Welcome back. Let's get the latest action from the Harbin Asian Winter Games. China's
00:22Gao Qinggu won his second gold at the event after crossing the line first in the men's
00:28500m speed skating final. The Beijing Winter Olympics champion kept his solid form from the
00:34100m to win this title in 34.95 seconds. Japan's Morishige Wafaru claimed silver
00:42and South Korea's Kim Jun-ho took bronze. China also dominated the women's podium in the women's
00:49speed skating 3000m. Yang Bingyu won silver in the 1500m at this event but topped that
00:56performance to take gold in the 3000m final, crossing the finish line at 4 minutes 854 seconds.
01:04The 1500m winner Han Mei finished second and Tai Chen took the bronze.
01:12China also got gold in the men's teen sprint. Chinese trio Gao Qinggu, Liang Siwen and Ning
01:19Zhonghuan clinched gold followed by South Korea winning silver and Japan the bronze medal. It's
01:25getting a theme here, aren't we? So let's take a look at the medal table after day three. China
01:31remains in the lead spot with 54 including 21 golds. South Korea is second with 30 medals,
01:3811 of those are gold. In third spot is Japan with a total of 17 medals including four gold
01:44and Kazakhstan remains in fourth place.
01:47Popular spectator sport figure skating begins on Tuesday. Now one of China's young rising stars
01:53is 18-year-old Ang Xinyi who successfully defended her title at the 2024 Asian Open
01:59Figure Skating Trophy. Now known as Nini by her fans, the figure skater took to the ice aged just
02:04three years old, coached by her father. She's hoping a successful Asian Games will earn her
02:09a spot on China's team at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
02:14Let's take a closer look at China's growing winter sports market. Its popularity is growing
02:19following the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. Since then more than 313 million people have
02:26taken part in ice and snow sports in China. And the government now wants the ice and snow
02:32economy to be a key force in boosting economic growth with ambitious plans to expand the sector
02:38A central part of the five-year plan is to build more facilities. In 2015 China had around 700
02:45winter sports venues nationwide. But by the end of 2023 that number had skyrocketed to over 2,800,
02:52an increase of 400 percent. And the Chinese government plans to expand the sector to
02:58nationwide. But by the end of 2023 that number had skyrocketed to over 2,800, an increase of 400
03:07percent. And the government aims to secure land to build even more. Now skiing is particularly
03:14important. Over the last decade China's evolved from having virtually no ski culture to having
03:19more resorts than any other country in the world, more than 700 nationwide. And all those facilities
03:26are attracting more and more visitors. In 2023 China recorded more than 385 million winter leisure
03:34visits, a year-on-year increase of 38 percent. Meanwhile revenue is up 50 percent. 87 million of
03:41those visits were to Harbin, a traditional winter tourist destination in northeastern China,
03:47which generated 17.2 million dollars in tourism revenue. And with the Asian winter games now
03:53well underway in the city, the local ice and snow economy looks poised for yet another lucrative
04:00season. Justin Downes is president of Axis Leisure Management. Harbin's always been a very strong
04:08winter tourism destination. I mean the Harbin Ice Festival is world renowned as being a top winter
04:16destination for winter enthusiasts. So it's only growing from strength to strength and I think it
04:22was only last month that Harbin attracted more than two million visitors to come to the city for
04:30winter sport tourism. But obviously the spotlight has been shined on China and Harbin now as being
04:38a serious winter sport country. So everybody around the nation and around the region and around the
04:43world is recognizing that China has a very vibrant winter industry. So more and more people are
04:48inclined to get engaged with sport, travel and make snow and snow tourism a part of their winter
04:55activities. So it couldn't be a better story actually for Heilongjiang province, Harbin and
05:01for the country to host these games. So is this a long-term strategy do you think? Beyond the
05:05immediate boost from the games, will there be a long-term economic impact on China's ice and snow
05:10economy? Oh absolutely no question. I mean the central government has made it a part of its
05:18five-year plan and longer term to ensure that winter sport is a significant part of the overall
05:24national economy. You know the government has made a bold statement of saying that more than
05:30300 million people would get involved in winter sport. That was a part of the bid for the 2022 games.
05:35They've achieved that. It's continuing to grow from strength to strength. Winter sport has been
05:40made a part of the school curriculum for every Chinese child. It's everywhere in the media
05:48that winter sport is to be something that all Chinese people should enjoy and with 750 million
05:54odd people in the south part of the country that aren't that don't have snow. That's where the
05:58biggest push is and that's where the biggest interest is and that's indicative actually of
06:02the whole of the Asian and Southeast Asian region that people are now fascinated by snow and they're
06:07yearning for adventure and activities and this is just this is only the tip of the iceberg,
06:13no pun intended. A very good pun and it's quite a specific type of investment isn't it that's
06:19required specific infrastructure. What kind of facilities have been built? Well I mean obviously
06:26you you have the the typical urban infrastructure so with any of these these games they need to
06:32improve accessibility so improvements to highways out to the the say the the ski areas and things
06:39like this in the case of the Asian games in Harbin. They've improved the railway access up
06:45to Yabali which is one of the most famous ski destinations in the country but was typically
06:50fairly hard to get to so the rail access has now been greatly improved through electrification
06:56making it easier, safer, faster and cheaper for people to get there. You've seen new ice venues
07:01such as the the short track speed skating venue now hosts a capacity of almost 3,000 people. You've
07:08got a hockey arena hosts around 5,000. I mean this is putting things on an international standard
07:15of facilities to host these types of events long into the future that will help to nurture
07:22grassroots sport into professional sport and into global sport destinations so
07:27you know it's only good for the growth of the winter sport around the country.