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 China's 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, China's 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 Gansu's Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, giving sports lovers in northwest China more choices for skiing.

Hai Yun, director of Linxia's 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. Enditem