China’s 'Whistler' ready for Snowboard Cross World Cup debut
Dec 06, 2024·Snowboard Cross)
The Snowboard Cross World Cup season returns to Asia in early 2025, with Beidahu – the ‘Whistler of China’ – ready to host the world’s best riders for the first time.
The Beidahu World Cup will take place between 31 January and 2 February next year, coinciding with the Chinese New Year holiday. That means the resort will be busy with people celebrating the start of the Year of the Snake, creating a big crowd to cheer on the World Cup competitors.
The snowboard cross course will be built on the existing terrain, and the resort is hoping to maintain the course for public use for the rest of the season, although slightly downscaled. Beier says this will leave a legacy after the World Cup races and make this project more sustainable.
The course will be similar to Mont-Saint-Anne in terms of steepness, with around four turns overall. The final section will be long, and will finish in the middle of the resort.
Beier, along with David Frid of FIS Media & Marketing, attended a final preparation meeting at the venue in early December.
Although this is the first Snowboard Cross World Cup to travel to Beidahu, the resort is no stranger to big events after hosting Alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, biathlon and snowboarding for the 6th Asian Winter Games in 2007 and the China X-Games in Snowboard Slopestyle in January 2024 as well as several national Winter Games.
Beidahu is one of the largest resorts in China in terms of slopes, slope kilometers, and lift capacity. Similar to Whistler in Canada, it is centred around a square with shops and restaurants, with lifts starting almost directly from the square up to the mountain, making everything within walking distance.
Beier says the resort has a lively feel with plenty of amenities. It is also only 90 minutes away from Jilin City which, together with Beidahu and the surrounding area, create a potential audience of several million people.
Many competitors at the World Cup will have participated at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, when the experience was impacted by measures to stop the spread of Covid-19. In Beidahu, especially with the New Year holiday in full swing, the hope is they will have the chance to experience China’s growing love of snowboarding – as well as showcase the best of the sport to a new audience.
The last time the Snowboard Cross World Cup visited Asia was also in the 2021/22 season, when the Secret Garden resort in Zhangjiakou hosted a test event ahead of the Olympic Winter Games. Back then, eventual Olympic champion Alessandro Haemmerle took out the men’s competition, while Eva Adamczykova won the women’s event.
