First Snow Polo World Cup Hosted in China

China's first ever Snow Polo World Cup kicked off in the country's largest polo facility on Saturday, with 12 top international teams attracting a crowd of new polo enthusiasts.

The tournament was held at the Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club in Tianjin, an industrial port city an hour and a half by car from Beijing.

The 12 teams, all members of the Federation of International Polo, fall into a 14-16 handicap range, which organizers say makes the tournament one of the most competitive in the world.

Three matches—Hong Kong/China versus England, Argentina versus South Africa, and India versus the United States—were held after the opening parade on Sunday.

Teams from Australia, Brazil, Chile, France, Italy and New Zealand will also be competing to become the first winners of the inaugural Snow Polo World Cup.

Though it was once popular with China's upper classes during the Tang dynasty over 1,000 years ago, the “sport of kings” died out almost entirely in China until a recent surge of interest in foreign sports became perceived as high class.

[Qin Yumei, Polo Fan]:
"Personally, I don't know a lot about polo, but I think that's the same for everyone in the Chinese audience. But through watching a couple of matches today, I can see how polo—especially snow polo—could easily appeal to people across the country and in the world."

Tianjin's polo club features two standard-sized polo fields, stabling for 157 horses and a riding school.