As China’s punishing summer heat wave continues, winter sports venues across the country are experiencing a surge in bookings from people seeking to cool off for a few hours.

Several listings platforms have seen dramatic surges in searches and bookings for indoor ski slopes, Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper reported on Tuesday.

Searches for indoor ski resorts on Meituan were up 161% year over year during the first half of July, while bookings for ski-related activities via the platform rose 25% in July compared with the previous month.

Travel platform Trip.com reported a 70% increase in bookings for indoor skiing venues and an 89% rise in searches for skiing venues and events in July.

China has built a massive number of winter sports venues in recent years, especially in the run up to the Beijing 2022 Olympics.

In 2023, the number of ice skating rinks in the country rose to 1,912, up 21.3% year over year, while the number of ski resorts reached 935, up 6.7% year over year, according to China’s General Administration of Sport.

But only 59 of those skiing venues are indoor facilities — and they aren’t cheap. On Thursday, the world’s largest indoor ski resort will open for bookings in Shanghai, with prices ranging from 420 yuan to 780 yuan ($59-109) depending on the date.

Zhou Xixi, a 26-year-old travel vlogger from the eastern Anhui province, is one of many young Chinese to recently take up skiing. She tried the sport for the first time in 2022, and has since been on several trips to skiing resorts in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Last week, Zhou ventured into an indoor ski slope in Shanghai for the first time. Though the runs are far shorter than in outdoor resorts, Zhou said she valued having a skiing facility close to home, especially during the summer months.

“The joy of skiing in the summer and escaping the scorching heat outside is a unique experience that outdoor ski resorts cannot replicate,” she told Sixth Tone.

Travel companies, meanwhile, are already taking bookings for winter ski trips. Spring Tour, a leading Chinese travel firm, launched its 2024-2025 ski season pre-sale package on July 24 and received over 1 million yuan of bookings within two hours, according to The Paper.

“The speed and volume of this year’s skiing pre-sales have reached unprecedented levels, with a significant increase in website traffic,” said Li Jingwei, a product manager at Spring Tour.

(Header image: People try skiing at an indoor ski slope in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, July 15, 2024. Chen Jimin/CNS/VCG)