CRI听力:Former Croatia Ambassador Loves Chongli

Ante Simonic is the former vice-prime minister of Croatia, and the former Croatian ambassador to China from 2008 to 2013. The 66 year old remembers Chongli well.

"As you see, I'm very old. I used to ski in so many European countries. But with my wife I chose to ski in Chongli. 8 years ago, I started as a tourist, coming for 1 or 2 weeks per year. Then we used to spend at least 2 or 3 months per year in Chongli. So we witnessed the development of Chongli and the ski industry."

Ante speaks very highly of the skiing facilities in Slovenia and the neighboring countries of Croatia. But the reason why he eventually chose Chongli is because the resort has so much to offer including the service, local people and equipment.

"The quality of snow, the climate, and the service in the ski resorts are great! The restaurants and the drinks are really nice. Chinese don't drink only tea! Security, hospitality of the locals and their ability to communicate with others are excellent. There are shops in Chongli with the best equipment you can imagine. These are the reasons we are not skiing in other countries"

It's obvious that Ante is very fond of the facilities in Chongli. At the same time, he said he has faith in the ability of the Chinese people to organize large events after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

"The Chinese planned to organize Winter Olympics in Chongli. Beijing had organized one Olympics so good. People don't know about Zhangjiakou, but it's a city where a couple of millions live, and it has the size of a medium European country. It's a beautiful city with high capacity to do the job."

Ante hopes that skiing enthusiasts and athletes from all over the world can see and feel Chongli by themselves. In fact, Chinese people have already started to show interest in winter sports.

That was Liu Xiangwei Reporting.