Recently, Chinese officials unexpectedly announced that skiing originated from this populous nation rather than from Northern Europe, as many previously believed.
The China National Tourism Administration stated that they discovered an ancient stone slab engraved with images of “people holding sticks resembling ski poles” as evidence for this claim.
Engravings on stone slabs found in Xinjiang, China.
Skiing is traditionally considered a sport that originated in Northern Europe, where a ski dating back to around 2500 BC was found in a peat bog in the high mountains of Sweden. This sport is also popular and has developed significantly in Europe.
The sticks believed to be the “primitive” ski poles.
Meanwhile, skiing is one of the newer sports that have been introduced to China, along with football, surfing, and golf.
However, according to officials, the stone slabs discovered in Xinjiang province in 2005 feature many images of animals and people holding sticks that are believed to be the “primitive” ski poles.
Furthermore, the information that China is the “homeland” of skiing has also been published on the official tourism website of Altay, a province located in northern Xinjiang.
Moreover, many Chinese scholars also suggest that golf originated during the Southern Tang dynasty in the 10th century.
