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Skateboarding arrived in China in April 1986 when an American skateboarder arrived in China to study Chinese at the Beijing Language Institute. He says, "When I arrived in China, there wasn't even a word in Chinese for skateboard. People were really interested in learning to ride, and in a few years Chinese skaters started appearing in almost every city I travelled to".〔Li, Winnie. "(Speedy Skateboarding )." ''Beijing This Month'' June 1, 2005.〕 Domestic skate companies and retailers began to appear at around the turn of the century,〔 bringing the average price for a skateboard of ordinary quality down from an expensive 1000 yuan to around 280 yuan as of 2009.〔Xia, Summer, and Lisa Li. "(China Youthology interviewing Jeff Han: the skateboarding scene in China )." ''China Youthology'' February 6, 2009.〕 Skateboarding has been slow to develop in China because of the lack of a strong preexisting street culture and of skating infrastructure; nevertheless, it's estimated that as of 2009 there are 40,000 to 50,000 skateboarders in China.〔He Bolin. "(Skateboarding out of the Shadows )." ''China Daily'' June 22, 2009.〕 The first major skateboard brand to enter China was Powell Peralta, who in the early 90's gave Chinese skaters a taste of the skateboarding by organizing a skateboard club, sponsoring contests and bringing over famous professional skateboarders. Many participants in the Powell events are still involved in the industry today, including Yuan Fei, who runs a skateshop in Qingdao and has the well-received skateboard brand, Lady, Wang Lei, the recipient of Powell's first board in China, who at 40 is still skating hard, and Xia Yu, who is now a well-known movie star and avid skateboard and snowboarder. Another significant figure in the development of skateboarding in China has been Jeff Han (Han Minjie). After a decade-long career with a milk company, in 1999 Han quit and co-founded Fly Streetwear with Danny Zhang, the first skateshop in Shanghai.〔 He also founded Gift Skateboards, a manufacturer that initially produced only boards for foreign brands but has now become the leading domestic skateboard brand;〔Gold, Michael. "(Half-pipe Dreams )." ''Global Times'' February 9, 2010.〕 Cart Wheels, another skateboard brand; and Skatehere.com, the most popular Chinese-language skateboarding website.〔 In addition to his companies, he runs a professional skateboarding team.〔 In 2007, Nike Skateboarding created the Fly Milk Blazer Premium sneaker in tribute to Han.〔"(Nike SB Fly Milk Blazer Premium )." ''Hypebeast'' May 15, 2007.〕 ==Business== Along with Jeff Han's companies, one of the oldest and most important Chinese skateboard companies is Shehui (; English: ''Society'') Skateboards.〔Chow, Jonathan. "(Skateboarding with Chinese Characteristics )." ''US-China Today'' June 20, 2008.〕 Headquartered in Beijing, it was founded by Raph Cooper, a USC alum who had studied abroad at Peking University in 2000. A number of Western skate shoe brands have presences in China. These brands include Vans, Nike SB, Circa, Converse and Adidas. In the domain of skateboarding apparel, Jeff Han reports that Vans is the No.1. Adidas is the new comer in China. I still remember that on the first opening day of Vans at Fly, we sold RMB 50,000 of Vans. As a matter of fact, before Vans’ official launch in China, it was already superbly popular in Beijing. Converse was replaced by Vans as the symbol of cool. Nike successfully launched some limited editions that are more expensive…〔 Han regards Nike Skateboarding's history in China as a major success story. Though not respected as a skate brand at the time they launched in the Chinese market in 2004, through sponsorships of successful Chinese skateboarders such as Che Lin and Zeng Guanhao as well as intense local marketing efforts, they won broad recognition in China. ʻAukai is well known too. The Biggest Skateboards Company is "Challenge Skateboards." and now they start their new company "FDskateboarding"（沸点滑板有限公司）to promote their domestic business.They have 11 skateboard (and skateboard related)brands:Symbolic Skateboards,Boiling Skateboards,Justice Skateboards,Black Knight Skateboards,Psychos Skateboards,Peer Trucks,Donuts Wheels,a Chinese skateboarding portals website:(Chinaskateboards.cn ) & a printed magazine ''WHATSUP'' skateboard magazine（Chinese）. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Skateboarding in China」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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