Skating coach Lu Meijia (top) attends a training class for coaches in the Centry Star rink located in a mall in Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian province on March 8, 2017. The boom of winter sports in warm southeast China's Fujian province in recent years help develop the sports economy and industry. In 2015, three ice rinks opened in Fuzhou and Xiamen. The era of no real ice rinks was over. More and more residents, including teenagers, the middle-aged and senior citizens, have themselves involved in skating and ice hockey in the past two years. The two ice rinks in Fuzhou host figure skating and ice hockey classes, attracting trainees as many as 5000. During weekends, the ice rinks could draw more than 2000 skaters daily. The owners of the ice rinks in Fujian believe a promising future despite of the high operation costs and comparatively low popularity of winter sports in southern China as the Chinese government encourage 300 million people in the country to participate in winter sports ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics. "Encouraging entrepreneurs to get into the business of winter sports" has been written in the 13th Five-year plan of Fujian Sports industry developments. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)
