A Winter Olympics-ready linguistic guide to visiting China’s ski resorts
As the 2022 Winter Olympics rolls around, enthusiasm for snow sports in China is running higher than ever. As mainstream Chinese media is fond of declaring, “北京冬奥会带火了中国的冰雪运动 (Běijīng Dōng’àohuì dàihuǒle Zhōngguó de bīngxuě yùndòng, The Beijing Winter Olympics has ignited the popularity of snow sports in China).”
According to the “2021 China Ice and Snow Tourism Development Report” from the China Tourism Academy, published in January, winter sports are expected to attract 230 million visitors this year and generate revenue of more than 390 billion RMB, almost reaching the government’s goal of engaging 300 million people in the sport by 2022.
Outdoor and indoor ski venues have opened across the country in response to these investments, inviting visitors with attractive slogans:
Slope Slang: Talk Like a Skier is a story from our issue, “Access Wanted.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
Yang Tingting is a Chinese editor at The World of Chinese. Interested in telling Chinese stories, she writes mainly about culture, language, and society.
