, '' says Graham Kwan , CEO of Melco China Resorts the developers of Sun Mountain , Yabuli . It 's a factor that has held back the momentum of the Chinese ski industry , where the image is still one of bumpy nursery slopes crowded with first-time skiers snow-ploughing into one another . `` The industry is n't developing as fast as it should , '' says Justin Downes , president of Axis Leisure , a Beijing-based resort industry consultancy . `` Ninety percent of skiers are still considered beginners and rent their equipment . The quality of the product and safety has often been questionable , service has been poor . '' Kwan hopes Sun Mountain will provide Chinese skiers with a five-star destination resort that keeps novices coming back to the slopes . Others developers are following suit . French resort company Club Med plans to open a dedicated ski village in China at the end of the year , the first of five the company plans to open by 2015 . China 's Wanda group have plans on a resort in the mountains bordering North Korea , and a resort called Beijing Secret Garden is being
Yabuli , China -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Insulated in designer skiwear against a temperature of -15 ° Celsius , three of China 's burgeoning ski set bundle into a gondola headed to a wind-swept mountaintop in Heilongjiang province , Northeastern China . These new members of China 's skiing elite had traveled from Harbin three hours drive away for a day 's skiing at Sun Mountain , Yabuli , and clearly relished hurtling downhill at one of the country 's newest high-end resorts . `` Control your speed '' is good advice for any novice skier , but it could be equally applied to the growing number of businesses aiming to tap into the nascent Chinese skiing industry . Skiing is just the latest market in China touted to `` boom '' as an increasingly affluent middle class finds new ways to spend their wealth and leisure time . The China Ski Association put the number of skiers in China at 5 million in 2005 , up from just 200,000 in 2000 . The association predicts 20 million skiers by 2014 . `` But around 80 percent will probably never do it again , because the experience is so bad