INTERNATIONAL: In 2015, when Beijing was named the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Shanghai entrepreneur Ye Kai decided to tap into the growing enthusiasm for winter sports in the country.
Three years later, with two Austrian partners, Ye opened a store centred around an indoor alpine simulator - a supersized treadmill for snowboarders and skiers to get a taste of the slopes without having to leave the urban city.
Now, the chain is looking forward to expend its business, amid the upcoming Beijing Olympics in February
Six-year-old Li Wenxuan moved skilfully on her skis as she listened to her instructor during a training session. This would have looked like a normal skiing class except Li wasn't on a mountain slope in the outdoors. Instead, she was in a stylish mall in China's commercial capital of Shanghai.
INTERNATIONAL: In 2015, when Beijing was named the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Shanghai entrepreneur Ye Kai decided to tap into the growing enthusiasm for winter sports in the country. As shoppers and children watched from various view points in the mall, Li, fully equipped with ski gear and a helmet, zipped from side to side on a moving slope which ran underneath her.
Li Wenxuan, of just six years old, told practicing skiing makes her dream to be an athlete in the future: "I love skiing. I come to ski six times a week. Skiing here makes me feel the same as skiing on real snow. I want to be a champion in the Olympics."
Li Wenxuan’s mother, Li Tianqing, shared his daughter love to the sports: "Snow51 has indoor skiing so I brought her here to have a try. She really wants to participate in this sport. Even when I told her I would like to buy her a gift, she told me no and she only wanted to ski. So we resolutely signed her up for the ski course. At the beginning, I wanted to train her courage and sporting spirit, but slowly I found out she's quite suitable for this sport and she's pretty good at it. So after participating in several competitions, she has decided to want to become an athlete and we will absolutely give her our support."
Snow51 has now grown into a chain comprising of 23 outlets in high-end shopping malls in cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen. It is one of many local winter sports businesses that have sprung up since Beijing's Winter Olympics win, with the hope that the fervor will persist beyond the Games, especially for young skiing aspirants like Li.
Ye Kai, founder of Snow51 has explained more how the ski treadmill looks:
"It imitates the feeling of real snow, with a very special layer of material on it. When we ski and train on on this machine with this layer of material, the equipment used and the essential movements are exactly the same as those on real snow. But compared with real snow, its friction is four to five times that of real snow, so because of its much greater friction, you have to do curving movements."
The founder of Snow51 plans to expand the number of their stores to some 300 facilities in the next five years.
