(Yicai Global) March 7 -- Austria has exported more than EUR200 million (USD217 million) worth of winter sports goods to China over the past four years and many of the alpine nation’s companies were service and goods providers to the Beijing Olympic Winter Games last month as the European country continues to forge a close bond with China’s winter sports sector.

“Austria saw opportunities in China’s winter sports economy long before the country won the Winter Olympics bid and introduced Austrian companies into the country early on to make connections with Chinese counterparts,” Wu Shanshan, chief representative China at the Austrian Business Agency, told Yicai Global in a recent interview.

“Doppelmayr Seilbahnen, a 100-year-old rope-propelled transport system maker, first entered China in the 1990s targeting summer mountaineering activities, such as providing Mount Huangshan with cable car systems,” Wu said. But the Wolfurt-based company noticed that young Chinese were getting more and more enthusiastic about winter sports and began to move in that direction.

Doppelmayr built 14 cable car systems in the Yanqing and Zhangjiakou competition zones for the Winter Games and served as a technical consultant for the construction of the aerial tramways in the National Alpine Skiing Centre.

Compatriot AST Refrigeration and Solar Technology made the ice for the ice hockey, short track speed skating and curling competition venues at the Shougang Industrial Park, Wu said. It was the first company to bring natural CO2 refrigeration systems into China and this technique was used in the Capital Indoor Stadium, where the figure skating and other events were held, she added.

"China’s partnership with Austrian winter sports companies won’t end with the Olympics," Wu said. “Rather, we believe the Olympics will serve as an ‘accelerator’ which will further Austrian firms’ collaboration with China.”

The development of winter sports requires "long-term" effort and will continue after the Winter Olympics, said Li Sen, director of the planning department of the Beijing Organizing Committee. The country had 654 skating rinks and 803 ski resorts as of the end of 2020, according to data from the General Administration of Sports. Around 346 million people are winter sports enthusiasts in China.

Editor: Kim Taylor