Fosun, the Chinese company that bought Club Med in 2015, has opened an indoor ski resort near Shanghai.
Taicang Alps Resort is around the 50th indoor snow centre in China where, according to the 2022-2023 China Ski Industry White Book , by Benny Wu (Wu Bin), almost 20% of skiers and riders there now practice winter sport indoors rather than out.
With a reported indoor snow area of 54,000 square metres it’s the fourth largest in the world, with seven of the planet’s 11 largest centres now in China. Most of the biggest are operated by the Sunac group with the name Bonski, and this new Fosun centre is the largest run by another company.
Describing Taicang Alps Resort’s opening as, “a new landmark for ice and snow themed urban vacations” at the centre’s opening, Fosun unveiled a resort with six major themed “experience areas”: Alps Snow Live Ski Resort, Alps Snow Live Ice and Snow Park, Club Med Urban Oasis Taicang Resort, Alps Times, Alps Camp and Alps Cosmos. Overall they describe the facility as, “…an international, high-quality, immersive one-stop urban vacation experience.”
Alps Snow World includes two main experience zones: the ski resort and the ice and snow park, with a total construction area of 91,000 square meters.
Fosun worked in partnership with another major name in French skiing, the Compagnie des Alpes, Europe’s largest ski resort operator which runs 10 of the biggest ski areas in France, in the creation of the centre’s “Immersive Indoor Skiing Theme Park.”
The Alps Snow Live Ski Resort is equipped with five slopes of varying gradients, the longest reaching 280 meters, with uplift provided by seven magic carpets operating simultaneously, and professional skiing instructors to meet the needs of skiers of different skills and ages.
The Club Med Urban Oasis Taicang Resort is Club Med’s first indoor snow resort and it is the brand’s second urban resort globally, following the Nanjing Xianlin Resort opened last month. The resort is inspired by a “journey through the snow mountains,” the company says, integrating chalet and snowflake elements. The international buffet restaurant features local specialties from the Alps, and the summit lounge offers a special snow mountain-themed drink list and bar food services. Paired with the attentive service and exciting performances of G.Os (Gentle Organizers), guests can enjoy the leisure and comfort of Après Ski in the Alps.
Henri Giscard d’Estaing, Vice Chairman and Co-CEO of Fosun Tourism Group and Global President of Club Med, stated: “As a global leader in snow vacations, Club Med currently operates over 20 mountain snow resorts worldwide, many of which are located in the Alps, and includes three outdoor ski resorts in Northeast China. It is exciting to bring authentic European snow vacations to China. In the future, we will continue to leverage our expertise and extensive experience in the snow vacation industry to contribute to the development of China’s ice and snow industry.”
Besides the ski slopes Alps Snow Live Ice and Snow Park offers more than ten immersive snow entertainment activities, including mountain crossing, ice palace adventures, and penguin interactions, to provide snow and ice entertainment for non-skiers.
There’s also a show, “Aurora Dream”, which combines ice dancing and aerial shows to lead guests into the romantic and beautiful dream world of the Alps.
Jean-Marc Farini, President of the Compagnie des Alpes Management, said: “As one of the global leaders in the ski and leisure park industry, we are very excited to collaborate with Fosun to create Alps Snow Live from scratch. For over thirty years, the CDA has been dedicated to combining excellent operations with quality service. It has been our longstanding desire to enter this burgeoning new market in China and share our expertise in Europe’s leading mountain skiing and theme parks. We hope the new type of indoor ski resort we have developed will allow everyone to experience an immersive journey through the charm of the Alps and also contribute to the further popularization of skiing in China.”
During the opening ceremony, a series of authentic Alpine performances, including the “Seefeld Folk Welcome Show,” “Basel Odd Parade,” and “Annecy Aerial Art Show,” took place in the Alps Times and Alps Camp. These two themed areas replicate Alpine architecture, villages, forests, rivers, and other cultural and natural landscapes. The plan is to use the for ski equipment brand stores and large-scale art exhibitions among other things.
The Alps Cosmos stages exhibitions with its first themed “Salvador Dali | Paul Cézanne Alps Story” which includes three major chapters: “Paul Cézanne Four Seasons”, “Dreaming Dali,” and “AI Dali.” This uses cutting-edge high-definition scanning technology, CG light and shadow special effects technology, and high-definition projection display technology, coupled with the ice and snow-themed interactive exhibition hall to create a multidimensional, immersive, and distinctly different sensory feast compared to traditional art museum exhibitions to the audience, Fosun notes.
At the opening ceremony, the Taicang Alps International Resort, in partnership with the Fosun Foundation and the Fosun Foundation Art Center, jointly announced the official launch of the Taicang Youth Art and Aesthetic Education Program. The program will donate 500,000 RMB (65,000) to the Fosun Foundation to invite a thousand young students from Taicang’s primary and secondary schools to encourage art.
Fosun is one of the largest Chinese investors in France. Guo Guangchang, Chairman of Fosun International, stated: “It is not easy to develop a masterpiece in five years, but like everyone else, we firmly believe that the Chinese people’s desire for a better life is always strong, and we believe that the domestic demand for cultural and tourism consumption is robust. We also believe that consumers are willing to pay for high-quality products. As a company, Fosun has the capability and has always insisted on creative innovation. Relying on Fosun’s years of global operational capabilities, we are committed to bringing consumers high-quality products with unique experiences, to serve a billion family customers all around the world.”
Located in Taicang, Suzhou, adjacent to Taicangnan Station and Shanghai Jiading District, the resort is only an hour’s drive from the heart of Shanghai.
Part of the reason for the success of indoor ski areas in China is that most of the country’s vast population live in the country’s warm areas where sub-zero temperatures are very rare. The parts of the country that get snow and ice are either not that mountainous, very cold but dry with little natural snowfall, or extremely mountainous, including the Himalayas. Thus it makes more sense to bring the snow to where the population bases are.
