Fun Fact Friday | China Has More Ski Resorts Than Any Country on Earth

Back in 2000 I was living in Australia and trying to decide where to spend the following winter.

Like a lot of skiers at the time, my shortlist was pretty predictable.

France.

Austria.

Maybe Canada.

China wasn't even part of the conversation.

A year later I found myself spending an unforgettable season in Les Trois Vallées in France. Looking back now, it's strange to think how much the skiing world has changed in such a relatively short space of time.

Today, China has more ski resorts than any other country in the world.

I'll admit... that genuinely surprised me.

Not because I'd been following China's ski industry particularly closely—but because it challenged an assumption I'd been carrying around for more than twenty years.

Current estimates put the numbers at roughly:

• China — 800+

• Japan — around 500

• United States — around 470

• France — around 350

• Canada — around 290

Those numbers don't tell the whole story, of course.  It's worth pointing out that resort numbers don't necessarily reflect the size of ski areas. China leads by the number of resorts, while Europe and North America are still home to many of the world's largest interconnected ski areas.

Many of China's ski resorts are relatively small and primarily serve domestic visitors. They aren't necessarily competing with the enormous interconnected ski areas many of us immediately think of in Europe or North America.

Even so, it's a remarkable shift.

The lead-up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics accelerated investment in lifts, snowmaking and winter sports facilities, but the foundations had already been laid years earlier as interest in skiing continued to grow across China.

One name that kept appearing while I was reading more about this was Yabuli.

Located in Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China, it's generally regarded as the country's best-known ski destination. It hosted the alpine skiing events for the 1996 Asian Winter Games and has continued to expand over the years.

Would I book a ski trip to China tomorrow?

Honestly...I'm not sure.

Not because I don't think it would be worthwhile.

More because I know so little about what skiing there is actually like.  I've read there's been a growing demand for experienced English-speaking ski instructors, which immediately got me intrigued.

What's the atmosphere really like?

How expensive is day-to-day life in resort? Are there proper towns nearby or does everything revolve around the ski village?

How easy is independent travel? Would it feel isolated, or are there enough like-minded travellers to make it a memorable experience?

Which resorts genuinely stand out?

How does the snow compare? Is it dry? Heavy? Is it Canada-cold?

And perhaps most importantly...

What's the food like after a day on the mountain?

They're exactly the sort of questions that make me curious.

So over the next week I'm going to do some proper research.

Not from travel brochures.

Not from marketing videos.

From skiers who've actually been there.

Because I suspect China has quietly become one of the least understood ski destinations in the world.

A Personal Reflection

One of the things I love most about skiing is that it constantly reminds me how small my own experience really is.

After nearly five decades on skis, it's easy to think you've got a reasonable understanding of the skiing world.

Then you discover something like this.

The mountains haven't changed.

Our perspective has.

I've been fortunate enough to ski in Scotland (yes, I did just say "fortunate"), France, Austria, Australia during what many locals described as their best snow season in forty years, the United States while working in the Bay Area, and now Western Canada, which I'm lucky enough to call home.

Asia and South America are still blank spaces on my own skiing memory wall. Hopefully not forever.

—

Missing In Adventure.