Word: skying
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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...
...With the country celebrating its first-ever gold medal in a snow event at last month's Torino Olympics-courtesy of male aerial skier Han Xiaopeng-skiing has never been so cool in China. A decade ago, there was only one sizeable ski site in the entire country-Yabuli in northeastern Heilongjiang province-and that was built specifically to host the 1996 Asian Winter Games. Today, there are more than 200 resorts nationwide, and the China Ski Association estimates that Chinese ski slopes will record more than 3 million visits this winter. Although the high price of lift tickets...
...Ski Association predicts that 10 million Chinese could be skiing by then, meaning one out of every seven skiers worldwide could be living in China. "Everyone overseas skis, so why can't we?" asks schoolteacher Hang Mei, whose first-time snowplow is so cautious that she slows to a complete halt on the slope. "China is developing very fast, and there isn't anything...
...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...