Word: skis
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...first sign that Lotus Mountain is not Aspen comes from the man skiing down the hill in a pin-striped business suit. Other skiers are dressed in more sporty Gore-Tex outfits, but many share the snow-dusted rear of the man dressed for a day at the office. After all, most of the visitors to this newly built ski resort in China's northeast only began strapping on ski boots in the last couple of years. Few know how to negotiate a gentle slope without a few spills?or realize that the dried squid and sauteed pig kidney...
...most of China's big ski resorts are clustered in the country's impoverished northeast. While some American ski-resort towns boast film festivals and fashionable clothing boutiques, the village houses near Lotus Mountain are made of blocks of mud mixed with straw, and the only hotel accommodation is in flimsy, prefab lodges. Donkeys porting bundles of firewood for sale roam the village. Given the rustic environment, Lotus Mountain markets itself as an ecotourism destination, but the Air Supply tunes blasting from loudspeakers placed at regular intervals along the slopes shatter the wintry calm of the setting...
...Beijing, the resorts are fancier, offering everything from Swiss-style chalets to trails in the shadow of the Great Wall. But few of the runs are long enough to take more than a minute to complete. Local topography is hilly rather than mountainous and poses little challenge to ardent ski demons. Many resorts also depend on artificial snow, which, in addition to providing less-than-ideal schussing conditions, requires thousands of tons of water in a region already suffering from drought. With Chinese skiers clamoring for tougher runs and posher digs, Western ski-resort companies are scouting out the market...
...Ski boots may be an easy sell compared with convincing Chinese to vacation at high-end domestic ski resorts. China's northeast may have plenty of snow, but with average temperatures in the -20°C range, this is hardly balmy country. Chinese tourists with enough cash to dedicate to a luxury sport may prefer to go abroad. "South Korea is only two hours away and has great ski resorts," says Wang Hongbin, publisher of China's first ski magazine, Speed Ski. "People like to boast that they have vacationed overseas, not in some poor village in China's northeast...
...moment, though, even a place like Shanghai, hardly known for glacial temperatures, is cashing in on China's ski boom. The city is home to Asia's largest indoor ski dome, Yinqixing (Seven Silver Stars). With a slope that's just 380 m long, the $36 million facility isn't designed for serious ski bums. The steepest section of the hill is only 17 degrees, the snow feels more like Sno-Cone crystals than real powder and there are no lifts-just an escalator that takes skiers partway up the slope. Still, a Yinqixing spokesman says the facility has recorded...