Since China's successful bid in 2015 to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, Zhangjiakou has energetically taken up the task of promoting winter sports to the young.

Before 2015, there were no Olympic education courses in schools, no teachers and no coaches, Zhao said, "but great efforts have been made to change the situation in recent years."

The city's education bureau pulled experts together to write a book in 2015 — Olympic Education Reader for Primary and Secondary Schools — which is used in schools.

The city boasts more than 100 schools that are specialized in teaching ice and snow sports or focused on Olympic knowledge. The number is nearly equal to that of Beijing, Zhangjiakou Daily reported.

Various winter sports activities and games have been organized for primary and secondary school students for several consecutive years in which more than 400,000 students have been involved, the bureau said.