Source: Hubei Daily
The picture shows the scene of the Qinhuangdao Station of the 7th International Tourism Island Windsurfing Grand Prix in 2020. Photo by Yu Yang/Hebei Daily
The coach training was ongoing at the Qinhuangdao Ruifan Sailing Club in the Seatopia in Beidaihe New district. The sea is blue in May days with white sails dotted.
“It was bustling in September last year, the Qinhuangdao Sailing Season was held here, covering various events, and involving more than 600 athletes from Hainan, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Sichuan. How spectacular it was!” said Liu Guifang, vice president of the Qinhuangdao Yachting Association.
Liu Guifang, 68 years old, is a national judge of sailing events. He served as a domestic technical official in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. He also witnessed the development of sailing and related industries in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province. A few days ago, the Seatopia Sailing Project in Beidaihe New district was selected as the National Demonstration Project of Sports Industry by the State Sports General Administration, and he is looking forward to this summer.
The agglomeration advantages of yachting club are emerging
“Sailing at the sea is many people’s dream. 1,450 people participated in our sailing summer camp in 2018. The number decreased last year due to the impact of the pandemic. Nearly 1,000 tickets for this year’s sailing summer camp have been booked since we sold in March.” said Xing Xueqian, CEO of the Qinhuangdao Ruifan Sailing Club of Beijing Sailing Center in Seatopia of Beidahe New district on May 8.
Qinhuangdao city boasts calm waves, soft sand, moderate tidal range, stable wind, and mild climate. It is one of the “seven outstanding sea venues” in the world, and the only prefecture-level city in China that has co-hosted the Olympics and Asian Games so far. The Beidaihe New district is an ideal area for sailing and windsurfing due to the open and vast sea without obvious bays or islands. In addition, the transportation location is preferential. The surrounding areas, especially Beijing and Tianjin, have the most active people for outdoor sports with the strongest consuming power in China, which is also one of the considerations for related enterprises to settle.
“Sailing education and training has an extensive market. For example, there are nearly 8,000 sailing schools in France, and 90,000 people get sailing licenses each year.” said Xing Xueqian, adding that sailing is not so popular in China, but youth sailing training is getting popular. Therefore, they took the youth sailing camp education as the priority in 2013, and the number of the sailing vessel has increased to 160 from 6, and trainees to over 1,000 from 300. There are more than 50 professional coaches in this club now.
“The scale of consumer group and the prospective of industry depend on the number of high-quality clubs.” said He Taibing, head of the Water Sports Management Center of the Qinhuangdao Sports Bureau, adding that Qinhuangdao City is giving full play to its shoreline resource advantages, attracting, supporting and cultivating sailing and windsurfing clubs, and promoting the sailing and windsurfing to the youngsters, so as to strengthen the marine sports market.
Qinhuangdao City has conducted the sailing training for four consecutive years since 2018. The government invested for 10,000 primary and middle school students to experience sailing and windsurfing, and selected 1,000 students for no less than 12-hour training of sailing basic course. They have established municipal sailing and windsurfing association to promote the club developing small sailboats and windsurfing. The government also encouraged the clubs to undertake various events through purchasing the services.
At present, there are 9 sailing clubs of various types in the city, mainly including the Seatopia Coastline Club and other 4 clubs in Beidaihe New District, engaging in the training of kiteboarding, windsurfing, small multi-hull boats, and stable board-type small boats. The agglomeration advantages are emerging.
The price of the 1-week sailing summer camps ranges from 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan, and some 4-day experience camps only take 3,000 yuan, aiming to inspire the youth to participate in sailing sports.
“It is not cheap, but the parents would like to pay it, because more and more children are interested in sailing.” The Yingyang Sailing Club in Beidaihe New District started youth sailing training in 2017, mainly engaging in the local market. According to Zhang Limin, general manager of the club, they had more than 100 trainees in the sailing summer camp in 2020.
The sailing and windsurfing industry chain is continuously improved
Walking in the cool sea breeze along the coast line of Seatopis in Beidaihe New District, you can see the sailing base that integrates “sailing service + sailor bar + navigation classroom + navigation library”, the boat garage that meets the needs of international sailing events, the nautical center for changing clothes, bathing, and clothing storage, the starfish-shaped food center, hotels and homestays.
The Seatopia in Beidaihe New District boasts a coastline of 2.8 kilometers, attracting sailing and windsurfing enthusiasts with high-quality sea conditions, good facilities, and an increasingly strong sailing atmosphere. National and provincial sailing events such as the National Windsurfing Championships, National Sailing Championships, Hebei Youth Sailing Championships, and local special events such as the Qinhuangdao Sailing Invitational Tournament, and the Qinhuangdao International Sailing Race have been held here.
“We earned more than 6 million yuan last year from the sailing events and training.” said Wang Xin, general manager of Sino-Ocean Group Qinhuangdao Cultural Tourism Company, adding that they are committed to the development and operation of the Seatopia resort towns.
Zhang Heping, a third-level investigator of the Qinhuangdao Sports Bureau, said that the sailing industry chain is long and has a great pulling effect. International data show that investment in the sailing port project can boost local economic benefits by 7 to 10 times.
Qinhuangdao City attaches great importance to the development of the sailing industry, and continues to extend the sailing industry chain. It has cooperated with the Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Film and Sports to organize the “International Tourism Island Windsurfing Grand Prix” for several consecutive years, established a normalized cooperative relationship with Charente-Maritime in France to hold the Sino-French Navigation Industry Exchange Week, established a comprehensive strategic partnership with the China Yachting Association to develop various events and related training, promote sailing sports, plan, construct and operate the sailing infrastructure.
After more than 50 years of hard work, the coastal town of Vilamore in Portugal has gradually developed into a well-known resort area integrating leisure sports and tourism, which starts with the construction of the wharf and the development of sailing. As the most active area for the development of the sailing industry in Qinhuangdao City, Beidaihe New District has given full play to the construction of the National Innovation Demonstration Zone for Life and Health Industry, to promote the integrated development of marine sports such as sailing and windsurfing with tourism, culture, and commerce.
There are 12 rivers running into the sea in Beidaihe New district, including Daihe River, Yanghe River, Puhe River, Qilihai River and Luanhe River. They will hold maritime sports carnivals such as sailing festival in 2021, aiming to promote the Seatopia sailing project, build the Aranya yacht comprehensive development zone and the grape island yacht industry base, and construct wharves using the river, the sea entrance and the reconstruction of the existing fishing port.
Wang Xin said that they will undertake more sailing events and promote the sales of sailing equipment and yacht exhibitions. In the future, they will build sailing yacht wharves, sailing parks, sailing hotels, etc., to form a one-stop service for boat berthing, refueling, maintenance, repair and tourism.
“Marine sports such as sailing and windsurfing are booming in Beidaihe New district” said He Taibing, adding that during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, they will help Beidaihe New district to further improve sailing sports, and create international and domestic brand events. At the same time, they will improve infrastructure construction, do a good job in training professional talents, and constantly consolidate the foundation for the development of the sailing industry. (Ye Juanjuan/Hebei Daily)
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