Tax data reveals China’s interest in winter sports remains strong

The Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Games have left town, and signs of spring are appearing across China, but the passion for winter sports appears to remain strong.

According to data from China’s tax authorities, the sales revenue for March 2022 in the Chongli District in Zhangjiakou was up 65 percent. For Beijing’s Yanqing District, the number was very similar, up 62.6 percent, according to the State Taxation Administration.

For the first quarter 2022, cumulative sales revenue of the sports industry showed a growth of 35.2 percent for the Chongli District and 68.9 percent for the Yanqing District.

By far the biggest winner was the accommodation and catering sectors in Chongli. Their sales revenue rose a staggering 350 percent from the same period last year. Numbers were up in Yanqing as well, though not quite as dramatically. Yanqing saw a 55.9 percent increase from the first quarter 2021.

Just before the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach told the China Media Group, “Winter sports will fundamentally change after this Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, with engagement of more than 300 million of Chinese people in winter sports. This is an amazing figure.”

So far the numbers appear to support Bach’s statement. According to statistics from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, over 346 million Chinese people have participated in some form of winter sports activities since Beijing was awarded the 2022 Winter Games in 2015.