During the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Chongli, a district in the co-host city of Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, staged most of the skiing events. Now, more than three years after the games, the lively sporting culture is still palpable throughout the region.

Post-games use of competition venues

Alongside the Olympic Athletes' Village, three Olympic venues—the National Ski Jumping Center, the National Cross-Country Skiing Center and the National Biathlon Center—together form the Chongli Olympic Park. Additionally, the Genting Snow Park, where athletes in the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events competed for medals during Beijing 2022, is also located in the district. These venues continue to be used for events at all levels, maintaining the vibrancy of Chongli and its status as one of China's main winter sports centers.

Beyond hosting ice and snow competitions in winter, Chongli is also a frequent venue for events in spring, summer and autumn. In particular, summer is a period of intense activity.

This July and August, over 20 different events and activities are slated to be held there. In July alone, the Genting Snow Park hosted more than 10 events, including the National Cheerleading League 2025 Chongli, the inaugural Genting Cup Disc Golf Invitational and the Genting Cup Mountain Bike Downhill Race. Additionally, Chongli 168 Ultra Trail running race, an intense endurance challenge, took place on July 11-13 with more than 11,000 participants from 25 countries and regions.

Year-round operation

The Chongli Olympic Park has established four core business pillars: staging cultural, sports and public events, offering study tours, receiving tourist visits and hosting conferences and exhibitions. Local cultural and tourism departments are exploring innovative ways to attract more off-season visitors, hoping to extend their stays and stimulate growth in supporting industries like hospitality.

With a straight-line distance of 150 km between Beijing and Chongli, the high-speed train takes just one hour. On July 23, while Beijing's temperature exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, Chongli's was only 20 degrees Celsius. Droves of tourists can be found around the lake in the center of the Fulong Four Seasons Town Resort, some savoring snacks, others taking leisurely strolls and still others enjoying the musical fountain by the water's edge. The buildings surrounding the lake exude a distinctly European flair.

On lifestyle and e-commerce platform RedNote, the Taiwoo Ski Resort is even more popular than the Fulong Four Seasons Town Resort. The operators of Taiwoo, the largest comprehensive ski resort in China, are also working to expand facilities for summer tourism programs like mountain karting and skeet shooting. Tourists can dine at a mountaintop restaurant sitting at an altitude of 2,160 meters while overlooking the ruins of the ancient Great Wall. In the summer of 2024, Taiwoo welcomed over 1.5 million tourist visits, gradually shedding its traditional business model that disproportionately relied on winter skiing programs.

In the summer of 2024, Chongli received 4.3 million tourist visits, surpassing the 4.23 million recorded that winter and marking a pivotal shift in the district's development. Based on current trends, the number of summer tourist visits is expected to climb further in 2025.

The legacy of Beijing 2022 is no longer confined to the winter months, but extends throughout the year. Chongli, formerly relying on winter sports tourism, is evolving into a vibrant, four-season destination brimming with attractions and activities. Its cultural and tourism success offers a valuable blueprint for many other resort areas across China.

(Reporting from Chongli, Hebei Province)

Copyedited by G.P. Wilson

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