Chinese Government expands Winter sports infrastructure

As the Winter Olympics ends in South Korea, the torch now passes to China, where the authorities are aiming for an impressive medal tally during the 2022 games, due to be held in Beijing and co-host city Zhangjiakou. A Sports Development plan was issued after China won the bid to host the games, outlining ambitions to build 650 skating rinks and 800 ski resorts in the run up to the Olympics. Current interest in Winter sports across the country is patchy, an example being skiing, which is dominated by learner skiers. A 2017 White Paper concluded that China is "the biggest beginner ski market in the world." It is hoped that athletic talent will emerge from a more developed Winter sports infrastructure. 

Nurturing future sports stars is not the sole reason for this rapid expansion. Although the investment is no guarantee that the athletes will win a significant haul of medals, the government aims to strike gold anyway. A January report by internet consultancy Analysys and Tencent, a provider of Internet value added services in China, estimated that the increase in tourism resulting from the construction of new resorts will generate 40 billion yuan in revenue by 2020. 

A glance at the Tenderstream archive, which collates global architectural tenders, reveals ready evidence of burgeoning activity in the Winter sports sector. Bids directly relating to the Beijing Olympics include a 2016 call for designs for the National Speed Skating Oval, a 80,000 sqm venue seating 12,000 spectators, while across the country there were large-scale tenders for entire resorts, an example being a 2017 planning and design tender for the 1000 ha Erdaogou Ski Resort and Winter sports tourist town. 

There are sure to be plenty of future developments in the years up to and beyond the Olympics, with the Chinese Government aiming to encourage 300 million people to engage in some form of Winter Sport by 2025.

Lucy Nordberg

TenderStream Research Specialist & Editor

The tender for the National Speed Skating Oval was published by TenderStream on 06.06.2016. See the original brief here

The tender for the Erdaogou Ski Resort was published by Tenderstream on 20.07.2017. See the original brief here

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