A special event, the Austrian Winter Sports Days 2019 Conference, organised by the Austrian Embassy in Beijing, has been held in Zhangjiakou.

Zhangjiakou, located 200 kilometres northwest of Beijing, is due to host snowboarding, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined and biathlon competitions during the Olympics. 

"Austria has been trying to be very present in China in the lead up to the Winter Olympics in 2022," Martin Glatz, commercial counselor at the Austrian Embassy, told China Daily. 

"Ten years ago when we organised for the first time the Advantage Austria Ski Race, not many people took Alpine skiing very seriously. 

"But now skiing has entered the mainstream in China." 

Glatz is also the head of Advantage Austria Beijing, an initiative from the Government in Vienna to act a central point of contact for Austrian firms wanting to do business in China or Chinese companies wanting to export to Austria.

As part of its successful bid for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Chinese Government set a target of getting 300 million people involved in winter sports.

"That's an opportunity not only for our Chinese friends to get some fresh air outside the big cities, but also is an opportunity for Austrian companies to get involved with Chinese partners to develop the market and to offer the best of equipment both in terms of consumer goods and in devices," Glatz said.

"I'm pleased that a group number of Austrian companies got the chance to take part in the construction of winter sports facilities and to provide the expertise for organizing great sports events like the Olympics," Friedrich Stift, Austria's Ambassador to China, said.

"We are trying hard to get more Austrian ski instructors and trainers to China and the greater number of Chinese winter sports tourists to Austria."