Day: January 9, 2021

(Xinhua)11:12, January 06, 2021

LANZHOU, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) — After his final school examination of the semester, Gao Zezhi, a primary student from Jingtai County of Baiyin city, rushed out to enjoy his skiing lesson in northwest Chinas Gansu province.

At the beginning of their winter vacation, many local students like Gao came to the Yellow River Stone Forest resort to practise skiing.

I like skiing very much, because skiing makes me feel braver, Gao said after his ski class.

The Yellow River Stone Forest resort was built along the Yellow River in Jingtai County, with facilities including cross-country skiing and biathlon venues.

The resort can receive over 1,000 skiers every weekend, said resort manager Gou Faxia.

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the company suffered heavy losses in 2020, and the resort was shut for nearly one month. However, booming business in the new year kept Gou confident, as she believed the impact of the epidemic would only be temporary.

This business will be better in 2021, Gou added.

Like Gou, Chinas winter sports practitioners are now looking ahead to the Beijing Olympic Winter Games in 2022.

Since last month, two different ski resorts have opened in Gansus Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, giving sports lovers in northwest China more choices for skiing.

Hai Yun, director of Linxias Administration of Sport, said that the local government hoped to involve more than 100,000 students in winter sports.

In the future, we will hold different winter sport events for young students, and we will look to cultivate winter sports talent, said Hai.

(Xinhua)11:16, January 08, 2021

GENEVA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) — Chinese volleyball stars Zhu Ting and Ding Xia have been named in a FIVB list that features 100 key players and teams that have influenced and enraptured the volleyball world over the past decade.

A feature article titled Zhu Ting is Chinas guiding light was posted Thursday on the FIVB website.

It may appear that Zhu Ting has plenty to contend with as she chases a second Olympic gold medal and MVP title at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, but that has not stopped the Chinese superstar from adding the task of obtaining a masters degree in history after she enrolled in Beijing Normal University in September, read the FIVB article.

It is an appropriate subject for the 26-year-old to study considering she has spent the past decade establishing herself among the greats of volleyball history, someone that will be spoken about and studied for many years to come.

Having made her China debut aged 18 in 2013, Zhus performances when China won gold at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 propelled her into a global volleyball star and one of her countrys most popular athletes.

Her story of growing up as one of five daughters on her parents farm in Zhudalou, a small village in Chinas central Henan Province captivated volleyball fans and her performances at the Japan 2018 FIVB Volleyball Womans World Championship and 2019 World Cup, where coach Lang Pings side won bronze and gold, increased her popularity further still.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic Zhu has been working hard behind closed doors along with the rest of the Chinese team.

Recently she spent eight weeks on the side-lines while she recovered from an injury to her right wrist but is confident that it will not take her too long to return to her best.

In 2015, setter Ding Xia was a squad player for China, used mainly for impact from the bench to give the star players a breather. By 2019 though she was a star, a mainstay of Lang Pings side and voted onto the tournament Dream Team after helping China win gold at the FIVB Volleyball Womens World Cup.

Ding is a firm fixture in the China team that will be aiming to defend their Olympic title at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The Roster 100 list features one hundred key players and teams that have influenced and enraptured the volleyball world with their achievements and stories over the years spanning from 2010 to 2020, the FIVB said.

Volleyball World has looked back over numerous competitions to select some of the biggest stars from each continent, read a FIVB statement.

Apart from the Chinese duo of Zhu and Ding, Japans Saori Kimura, Serbias Tijana Boskovic and Phil Dalhausser of the United States have also been named in the Roster 100 list.