Sailing culture is growing among young people in China

Sailing culture is growing among young people in China. In Qinhuangdao, a coastal city in Hebei Province in northern China, summer sailing camps have helped Chinese youth to become accustomed to sailing for the past 15 years.

To the southwest of Qinhuangdao is Beidaihe, where the sailing club is run. You can see dozens of dinghys preparing to launch and steer sails. These dinghys are kids and teenagers learning the basics of sailing.

These sailors are 7 to 16 years old. Some of them are already experienced. For seven days, they spend four hours each day in the ocean learning skills from sail setting to wind reading and sailing in a variety of wind conditions.

Isabella Inn, a senior at the sailing camp, came here with two friends and talked to CGTN.

“I love sailing. I started in the summer of fifth grade, just like two years ago. I first attended sailing because I wanted to go to a summer camp with my friends, but it’s a very interesting sport. Okay, I really liked it ever since, because it requires skill, concentration, and a lot of technical staff, “she said.

The Beijing Sailing Club in Qinhuangdao has been running this event for over 15 years. According to the club, the 180 students who attended this week’s camp are one of the 1,138 young people who enrolled in this summer’s sailing course. This is a significant increase in student numbers compared to 2012, when only 56 children were enrolled.

“There are two main parts of a sailing camp. One is sailing. We use the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) sailing scheme. This is an international way for young people to learn sailing. It is a sailing scheme recognized by. There are various stages in the scheme. Throughout the course, children will not only learn actual sailing skills, but also how to convey the weather, flow and wind. Another The part is that this team of professional counselors creates a variety of activities to create a fun and entertaining camping environment for children, ”said Wang Itan, brand manager at the Beijing Sailing Center.

Despite the surge in the number of young seafarers, the Beijing Sailing Club believes there is still room for the sport to grow. Chairman Li Xiaohuan is optimistic that he will be able to welcome one million young seafarers by 2032, and the club is working with other like-minded groups to achieve this goal.

“There is plenty of room for development in sailing sports in China. With our successful experience of methods and operations, we have established the China Yacht Association with youth training system, coach training program and basic operational training. It is possible to increase the youth sailing population to 1 million within 10 years, “said Li Xiaohuan, president of the Beijing Sailing Center.

The long coastline of Qinhuangdao makes it an ideal hub for sailing. It is also a training base for China’s national sailing team, which won gold medals at the Beijing, London and Tokyo Olympics. In June, the China Yacht Association established its Northern Headquarters here.

“A few years ago, we planned to make Qinhuangdao a core area for sailing and windsurfing, mainly based on some considerations. One is high quality natural, such as the coastline over 100 kilometers. Resources. Another is access to larger markets, such as populous cities like Beijing and Tianjin. “

Sailing is still considered an elite sport in China. But Liu believes that making sports accessible to the growing Chinese middle class will make young people a major target market for sailing in 10 to 15 years.