The National Skiing Machine: The Birth of Aerospace Aisino

Lately, more and more people in their social media circles have been sharing photos of their workouts, runs, mountain climbs, bike rides, ski trips—and the gear they’re using is getting cooler, their physiques are getting more athletic, and their skills are becoming increasingly professional. It’s clear that a wave of mass participation in sports is quietly sweeping across China, growing at an exponential rate as it moves toward greater accessibility, higher levels of professionalism, and greater diversity. The widespread adoption of a culture of mass sports and the upgrading of the mass-sports industry are now spreading like wildfire, ensuring that more and more Chinese citizens will once again experience the vibrant beauty of physical activity—and attracting even more investors, entrepreneurs, and start-up founders to join the movement, thereby fueling the robust development of mass sports in China.

Founder of Aerospace Aisino: Yang Zhiquan

Yang Zhiquan, the founder of Aerospace Aisino, is a veteran in the aerospace industry who has long run a company specializing in the R&D of high-precision road-testing equipment. Over the past 16 years, the company has steadily grown and consistently ranked among the leaders in the industry. After first taking up skiing at the age of 50, he fell deeply in love with the sport—just like a young person. Every winter season, he makes it a point to spend time on the snow-covered slopes with his fellow ski enthusiasts. As he often says: “Skiing gives you the feeling of flying; as soon as you glide down the slope, all your worries vanish.”

        A Skier in Mid-Air

Skiing has long been a niche sport in China. However, following China’s successful bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2015 and President Xi Jinping’s call to get “300 million people involved in winter sports,” coupled with the broader surge in mass participation in sports across the country, Yang Zhiquan keenly sensed that the ice-and-snow industry—particularly the ski sector—was poised to enter an unprecedented golden era of rapid growth. At present, the number of skiers in China stands at roughly 5 million, representing just 0.4% of the total population. Compared with the 5% in the United States, 9% in Japan, and 10% in South Korea, China still has enormous room for expansion in this field.

       China’s ski industry has enormous potential for development.

In early 2016, during an inadvertent conversation with fellow ski enthusiasts, Yang Zhiquan learned about a type of large-scale indoor ski-training equipment available abroad. His keen market insight immediately drew his attention to this technology. He discovered that such advanced, highly realistic indoor ski-training systems differ from VR-based virtual entertainment devices: they provide a truly immersive experience for both single- and dual-board skiing, while also offering significant advantages—unlimited by season or location, high safety, and low fault tolerance—making them the ideal solution for beginner instruction, recreational fitness training, and skill enhancement among ski aficionados. However, these foreign-made indoor ski simulators are prohibitively expensive, require lengthy installation and maintenance cycles, and drive up operating costs for indoor ski facilities. Yang Zhiquan reasoned: drawing on his many years of experience in equipment manufacturing, if he could integrate his professional expertise, personal passion, and entrepreneurial vision to localize the production of indoor ski-training equipment, he could lower the barrier to entry, enabling more Chinese citizens to learn and practice skiing on indoor simulators. This would help people quickly overcome psychological barriers, rapidly improve their skiing skills, and effortlessly enjoy the thrill of skiing—thereby supporting the national goal of getting 300 million people involved in winter sports while also helping them connect with more like-minded ski friends. What greater fulfillment could there be in life?

In 2016, he raised funds on his own and established Aerospace Aisino Snow & Ice Technology Co., Ltd. Leveraging aerospace technology and resources, he led the R&D team in fully dedicating themselves to the development of a ski simulator. In early 2017, the prototype successfully completed its trial run, marking the successful development of Aisino’s first indoor simulated ski machine. Building on this foundation, we have innovatively developed a physiological-data acquisition system that captures a wide range of skiing-related metrics and indicators through image-based data collection. We are also forging cross-sector collaborations with ski-equipment manufacturers, ski schools, and research institutions, thereby providing essential data support for the integrated development of industry–university–research in China’s ski sector and for advancing the upgrading of both product and industrial structures. By the end of February 2017, Aisino had completed production acceptance for its first batch of products and was already planning to open indoor ski-training facilities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shenzhen, and other regions; several venues in Beijing are slated to open in the near future.

Aisino Indoor Skiing Machine for Aerospace

Although the indoor ski-training industry is still in its infancy in China, the ongoing upgrade in public sports consumption and the growing popularity of the ice-and-snow sector are sure to spur rapid development of this industry. Aisino’s indoor ski simulators will also introduce more people to the exhilarating sport of skiing, thereby fostering the sustained and healthy growth of the entire industry.

A sincere welcome to discerning individuals.

To attend for guidance and to discuss cooperation

Jointly develop the indoor skiing industry.

Welcoming the Spring of the Ice and Snow Industry