Skiing Changes Course of Chinese Farmer's Life

Growing up in a remote village deep in the mountains of north China's Hebei Province, Xie Ting always assumed that he would remain a poor farmer like his ancestors. It never occurred to him that the snow -- and its associated sports -- would bring him a new and better life.

Born in Huangtuzui Village, in Chongli District in the city of Zhangjiakou, Xie recalls the heavy snow that would fall each year from November to April.

"The villagers would get upset when the snow came. We would be trapped at home, unable to leave throughout the winter," said the 35-year-old Xie.

In 2003, at the age of 16, Xie was working as a security guard at a ski resort in Chongli. Prior to this, he had no experience of skiing.

Then, as a forfeit for losing a bet with a friend, he was forced to slide down the mountain on a pair of skis. "It was the first time I had tried skiing, and I was scared. But the sport really impressed me," Xie said.

The young man later worked on the resort's first-aid team, which gave him further opportunities to ski, and he finally became an instructor.

Despite various injuries, Xie fell in love with the sport. He received professional training in Japan and gained the highest technical level of ski-instructor qualification from the Ski Association of Japan.

In 2015, Beijing and Zhangjiakou jointly won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, and since then Xie's hometown of Chongli has seen more and more skiers.

"The snowfields in Chongli became crowded with tourists, while more and more skiing competitions were held there. There was great demand for referees, so I decided to give it a try," said Xie.

In 2020, after a period of training and examinations, he finally became a national-level referee for Alpine skiing.

"Without the ski resort, I might be a farmer or migrant worker. It was the snow and Winter Olympics that gave me a different life," Xie said.

Many rural young men in Chongli have followed similar paths, becoming ski referees like Xie. Meanwhile, plenty of older villagers in Chongli have also jumped on the bandwagon, finding jobs in the winter-sports sector.

Of the over 126,000 residents in Chongli District, nearly 30,000 are now working directly or indirectly for local ski resorts. In the eyes of residents, the snow is no longer a big problem, but rather a cash cow.

In Hebei alone, more than 30 million people have taken part in ice-and-snow sports since 2015. It is a microcosm of the country's big drive to get 300 million Chinese people involved in winter sports.

As of last October, around 346 million people -- about a quarter of the country's population -- had participated in ice-and-snow sports since China's successful bid to host the Winter Olympics, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.