In the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, which has sweltering temperatures for much of the year, children are ditching their flip flops for skis and hitting the indoor slopes.<\/p>\n
Out west, high up on the Tibetan Plateau, Qinghai Province has become an unlikely center for curling, the traditional Scottish sport known as \u201cice kettle\u201d in Chinese.<\/p>\n
Over in the northeastern province of Liaoning, a group of retired men gather every day in the winter to strap on helmets and hockey pads and face off on an outdoor ice rink.<\/p>\n
Such scenes, once rare, are growing more common as the ruling Communist Party charges ahead with an ambitious campaign to transform China \u2014 large parts of which have never seen a single flake of natural snow \u2014 into a global winter sporting power.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n After China won the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, Xi Jinping vowed to create a nation of winter sports fans. Did he succeed? https:\/\/t.co\/SvB4lcWYzg<\/a><\/p>\n — New York Times World (@nytimesworld) February 15, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n