Summer Skiing in China may be Bone Dry

The glaciers are melting in the Alps and now summer skiing in China is being threatened. Last winter, the 13 ski resorts closest to Beijing, China were forced to rely almost entirely on man-made snow, and now, in the dog days of a long summer in China, it seems the summer skiing is in more trouble than the errant dog.

Summer skiing in Beijing is in the 10 story Qiaobo Ski Dome, which is named after Ye Qiaobo, who won China's first silver medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics. Qiaobo provides artificial snow on two 300 m slopes and keeps the slopes at a constant temperature of three degrees below zero. All this while the capital city is suffering through the worst drought in 50 years.

Due to the drought, the water level in one of Beijing's main reservoirs has fallen 91 per cent below its average level and the Chinese government has begun issuing strict water usage restrictions. One Chinese official has reportedly made the rash statement that people in Beijing can live without skiing , but not without water.

Beijing has promised a "Green Olympics" in 2008, and it will have to take drastic action to achieve that goal. So it may not be long before the spigot is turned off to slopes of Qiaobo.