BEIJING, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Zhao Hairui, a mountaineering lover with extensive experience climbing snow mountains, has just tried indoor ice climbing for the first time at a gym in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, travelling from his home in the country's northeast, roughly four hours away by air.

"I have travelled here especially for this experience," he said. The venue, opened officially in January this year, is China's first ice climbing gym.

GO NICHE SPORTS

Ice climbing, in which climbers use tools such as ice axes to ascend routes on often steep ice, is typically seen as a niche sport. But the gym, named ICE PANDA, sees a busy five-day May Day public holiday that began Friday in China, driven by demand from young people seeking new holiday experiences.

The gym's daily bookings during the May Day holiday exceed 40 people, nearing full capacity. More than 60 percent of visitors are from outside Sichuan.

"Many arrived with their suitcases and started climbing right after keeping them at the counter," said Wajie, head of the gym.

According to a report from the General Administration of Sport of China, as of early April 2025, more than 400 million people had participated in outdoor sports, with young and middle-aged people being the main consumers.

Located in Sichuan, a dreamland for hikers and mountaineers with one of the country's richest snow mountains, ICE PANDA expects to attract not only mountaineers seeking a place for training, but also young people who are willing to try niche sports.

"Even an absolute beginner can climb the gentle slope after just a few lessons," said Wajie, referring to a 60-degree slope offered at the gym for beginners, in contrast with a 79-degree steep slope and a 90-degree vertical face for veterans and professionals.

A first-time experience costs 498 yuan (73 U.S. dollars), including a one-hour session, one-on-one instruction and full equipment. It might not be a low price for many, but for Zhao, the experience was worth it.

"Now people prefer to pay for activities that they can actually engage in," he said. "It gave me a great sense of achievement and also relaxation when I reached the top step by step under guidance."

TRAVEL WITH PETS

Another experience that young Chinese would like to pay extra for is travelling with their fluffy family members, as 69 percent of urban cat and dog owners in the country last year were born in the 1990s or 2000s, as shown in a pet industry white paper released in January.

According to the white paper, China had 126 million pet cats and dogs in urban areas in 2025. Meanwhile, over 70 percent of pet owners had a willingness to travel with their pets.

Ahead of the May Day holiday, a pet-themed live session of Li Jiaqi, a well-known e-commerce streamer in China, featured more than 120 pet-related products from travel safety gear to outdoor rest items, and attracted over 10 million views.

"We have responded to the strong consumer demand for relaxed travel and people's desire to include pets in travel plans," said sources with Meione, the company behind Li's livestreaming room.

RENT FOR HOLIDAY

As a record 1.52 billion inter-regional trips are expected during this May Day holiday, renting items for travel, especially cameras, has emerged as a growing trend among young people.

On rrzu.com, an online rental platform, pre-orders ahead of the holiday have risen significantly by 58 percent from the previous year, with popular items being cameras, drones, handheld gimbals, and telephoto lenses.

Most orders were made by consumers under 30, according to the platform, which has more than 60 million users.

Despite rental prices rising to around 650 yuan for four days during the holiday for a Sony full-frame camera with a lens, many rental shops on Xianyu, China's leading second-hand trading platform, appear to be fully booked for cameras and smartphones.

"Concerts, travel and fan-related photography account for the largest share among holiday rental orders," said Liu Junzhi, a staff member at a camera store in Shanghai.

According to Chen Liang, who is in charge of the rental business at Xianyu, rental orders have grown more than tenfold over the past three years, becoming a new growth engine for the platform.

Core categories include digital electronics, as well as apparel and accessories, such as cosplay costumes. "These items are rather expensive to purchase but used infrequently in daily life, and often cater to one-off demand," he said, adding that this reflected a more rational consumption mindset of young people.

China's rental services market is expanding rapidly. In 2025, the value-added output of leasing and business services grew 10.3 percent year on year. A report from Beijing-based data analytics firm Analysys predicts that China's new rental market, based on credit systems on digital platforms and primarily targeting young generations, will approach 1 trillion yuan by 2030.

Chen said the rise of the rental services market reflected not only an innovation in consumption models, but also the development of the circular economy. "As consumption concepts continue to evolve, the rental industry will unleash greater vitality in the economy." ■