Millions of Chinese have embraced skiing

EYES WIDE and arms flailing, a skier slowly makes her way down the slope at Mission Hills. Outside the weather is balmy, but at this snow-dome in the southern city of Shenzhen, skiing is a year-round pursuit. Mission Hills, which opened last year, is one of nearly 700 indoor and outdoor ski centres in China. Visits to such places are increasing, according to state media.When Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, called on people to show their passion for winter sports. New resorts were built. According to the government, some 300m Chinese (out of a population of 1.4bn) have taken part in a winter sport since 2015. Those figures may be an overestimate, but this mass campaign appears more appealing to middle-class Chinese than others of a more ideological nature.