BEIJING AND ZHANGJIAKOU ARE TO HOST THE WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES in 2022, boosting the popularity of winter sports not only in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning - the three provinces in Northeast China that have long winters and which have produced the majority of China's winter sports champions - but also in other places where winter is a lot shorter, such as Shandong province in East China and Henan province in Central China.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a winter sports development plan (2016-25) in 2016, and experts say that the next six years will be a golden era for the winter sports in China thanks to the government's support.