Club Med is opening its first Chinese property this November.

Taking hold of the expanding Chinese market, The French holiday village group, Club Med has announced plans to open its first resort this November at Yalubi, the country’s top resort.

Club Med has run ski holiday villages at resorts around the world for many decades with ski areas including Copper Mountain in Colorado, La Plagne in France and Wengen in Switzerland all home to Club Med villages either now or in the past.  The company also pioneered ski holiday packages to Japan before other European or North American companies arrived with their village at Sahoro.

Located in Heilongjiang Province in north eastern China, Yabuli is currently the country’s largest ski resort. Popular among the Chinese for its high-quality ski areas, the complex, which includes Asia’s longest mountain trail, is ideal for skiers of all levels. In 2009, Yabuli hosted the World University Youth Games.

Yabuli-Sun Mountain is located near Harbin, a city of 10 million people that is home to the world’s largest ice festival. Harbin has an international airport from that allow travellers to reach Beijing in one hour and 30 minutes, and Shanghai in two hours 50 minutes.

Club Med’s plans are to open five similar villages over the next five years and has partnered with Chinese company Fosun, which now in turn owns ten percent of Club Med one of the biggest business groups in the country. Club Med expects 200,000 Chinese will use its resorts by 2015.

Club Med believes the Chinese measure market will continue to grow rapidly as personal wealth in the country increases.

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