Thousands of people living in the Chinese capital will celebrate the start of the Chinese New year by heading for the ski resorts. Never mind that Beijing’s dry weather seldom produces snow. It is cold enough in winter for snow-making machines to make a covering for the hills north to the capital. And the rapid growth of a pleasure-seeking middle class has formed the basis for this new craze.
居住在中国首都的数千人将前往滑雪场庆祝中国新年的开始。尽管北京天气干燥，很少下雪，但只要冬天足够冷，造雪机可以覆盖首都以北的山丘。追求快乐的中产阶级的快速增长是这一股新热潮的基础。
Since Beijing’s first ski resort was opened ten years ago, the sport has enjoyed astonishing increase. There are now more than a dozen resorts. Clothes markets in the city have added bright colored ski suits to their winter collections. Mr. Wei, a manager of a newly-opened ski resort in Beijing, sees the growth of an industry that could soon lead Chinese to head for the ski resorts of Europe. In recent years, ski resorts offering natural snow have opened in China. But many are in faraway areas of the country and can’t really match the equipment and services of some ski resorts in Europe.
自从十年前北京第一个滑雪场开业以来，这项运动有了惊人的增长，现在有十几个滑雪场。北京的服装市场在冬季系列中增加了色彩鲜艳的滑雪服。北京一个新开滑雪场的经理魏先生看到了这一行业的增长，很快就会有中国人前往欧洲滑雪场。近年来，提供天然雪的滑雪场已在中国开业。但许多滑雪场位于偏远地区，无法媲美欧洲一些滑雪场的设备和服务。
Beijing’s skiing craze is partly a result of the recent increase in private cars. This has led to the growth of a leisure industry in the capital’s suburbs, which until the late-1990s were unreachable to ordinary people. According to Mr. Wei, about 40% of the visitors to his resort come in their own cars. The rest are bused in by schools, businesses or government offices.
北京的滑雪热部分是由于最近私人汽车的增加，这导致了首都郊区休闲产业的发展。 在20世纪90年代前，普通人很难前往。魏先生说，去他那的滑雪场的游客中，约有40%自驾前往，其余是由学校、企业或政府办公室组织大巴而来。
The problem is making money. Starting ski resorts requires quite a lot of money; hiring land from the local government, preparing the hills, buying snow machines, making sure there are enough water and electricity to run them, and buying ski equipment for hiring out to customers.
赚钱是个问题。经营滑雪场需要很多钱；从当地政府租用土地，准备山丘，购买造雪机，确保有足够的水电来运营，以及购买滑雪设备出租给游客。
The ski resort where Mr. Wei works cost nearly $4 million to set up. And as so often in China when someone comes up with a good idea, many others rush in and price wars break out. Beijing now offers some of the cheapest ski training classes in the world, though with most people rather new to the sport, expecting a few more doing the same job.
魏先生工作的滑雪场建成耗资近400万美元。在中国，每当有人想出一个好主意时，许多人就会蜂拥而至，价格战也随之爆发。北京现在提供了世界上最便宜的滑雪培训班，尽管大多数人对这项运动还比较陌生，希望有更多的人从事这份工作。
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