If you build it, will they come? The polo club that hopes to lure Tianjin's 'new aristocracy'

The ponies bash into one another, muscling each other off the line of the ball, snorting and kicking up snow. The riders lean low off their saddles, mallets clacking. One player gets control and gallops forward, whacking the ball through the goalposts. The commentators erupt in excited shouts - not in German or French as at St Moritz or Courchevel, but in English and Putonghua: we are in Tianjin municipality in the north watching Asia's first snow polo competition.

The six-day Snow Polo Challenge at the 1.6 billion yuan (HK$1.9 billion) Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club last month was designed to raise awareness of the sport.

The club, the mainland's biggest polo venue, opened late last year and is located in Binhai Hi-tech Park, west of Tianjin.

The 898,000 square metre polo club includes two polo fields and stabling and facilities for 150 horses, plus a 167-room hotel with 10 restaurants, conference rooms, business centre, swimming pool, gymnasium and spa.

The polo club is part of the Goldin Metropolitan mega development, which will also comprise a central business district with 117-storey tower, a residential area, theme park and retail zone, all set for completion in 2015. The development is backed by Hong Kong-listed Goldin Properties Holdings.

The polo club will be strictly members only, with memberships starting at 380,000 yuan, and going up to 10 million yuan for patron level, which offers the opportunity of forming a polo team. Tickets will not be available to the public even for the international polo events. So far, no one has signed up for membership.