No business like snow business

Outdoor rinks

According to the Shanghai Sports Bureau, the city currently has 14 indoor ice rinks and eight outdoor rinks located at shopping malls, albeit only during winter. This is in stark contrast to 2015, when Beijing won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Games. Back then, there were 11 indoor ice rinks and no outdoor options.

Among the newest outdoor rinks in Shanghai is Rink on the Bund, which opened at the BFC shopping mall. According to Wang Yiliao, marketing manager of the mall, up to 500 people visit the rink on weekends.

Wang says he proposed the idea of opening the 200-square-meter rink in the central plaza to celebrate the 2022 Winter Olympics and draw more traffic to the mall.

"In addition to its prime location near the Bund, the rink is also surrounded by food trucks and accompanied by light shows and performances at night. It provides people with a combined experience of sports, leisure and entertainment," he says.

"In European countries where winter sports are more common, skating is part of their holiday season activity," Wang adds. "This rink will not be a one-time thing for the Olympics-we plan to do it every year to create a holiday atmosphere for customers who come to our shopping mall."

Besides sporting venues, the municipal sports bureau has also partnered with the municipal education commission to introduce winter sports courses to schools and holds more than 5,000 competitions that attract about 1.2 million students every year.

Among those offering such courses is Yang, who founded the Feiyang Skating Center in Pudong district in 2013. The center, which offers classes for curling, ice hockey and speed and figure skating, also has a branch in Minhang district. Business at the two centers has been growing, says Yang.

"When I founded the center, I sought to collaborate with 19 schools but only one agreed to open skating courses along with the center. Today, we have partnerships with more than a dozen schools and the centers are always packed during the weekends," she says.

Urban skiing

Winter sports experiences in the form of indoor skiing simulators have been popping up in shopping malls, too. These simulators, says skiing enthusiast Chen Guoyun, are useful as they help to ease people into the sport.

"Snowboarding can be quite difficult to grasp so it's good to get a feel for it first on the simulator before hitting the slopes," says Chen, who first tried using a skiing simulator at the Qibao Vanke Plaza in Shanghai in 2019.

"Indoor skiing simulators were difficult to find three years ago, but now more and more shopping malls have them," he adds.

According to the municipal sports bureau, there were 43 indoor skiing centers in Shanghai by the end of last year, up from 17 three years ago.

Such simulators also serve as a catalyst for growing winter sports enthusiasm. Chen Yunyan, for instance, says she is raring to hit the slopes after learning how to ski at Foryou Ski, an indoor facility of Fosun Tourism Group. It is located within the Shanghai No 1 Department Store.

Although the 8-year-old has never skied on real snow, she has already mastered the skills required for the intermediate snow track, thanks to the 20 training sessions she underwent starting last summer.

Xue Dongliang, manager of the center, says around 50 percent of the customers are children, with the youngest being only 3 years old. Xue also notes that business has grown as skiing is increasingly viewed as a "cool pastime".

Fosun Tourism Group presently operates three indoor skiing centers in Shanghai, two in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, and one in Sanya, Hainan province. The package, consisting of 24 ski or snowboarding sessions with a private coach and gear rental, costs 15,888 yuan ($2,500) at Foryou Ski. According to senior skiing instructor Wen Xu, getting to experience the sport first through a simulator comes with benefits.

"Learning skiing on simulators requires more precise movements. As such, my students often perform well in the snow when they finish their urban skiing courses," he says. "There are also veteran skiers who come to the center to hone their skills on the simulator ahead of the skiing season."