In modern times, skiing in China had been mostly invisible to the world until it hosted the Third Asian Winter Games in 1996 (well, even then).

FORBES: All uphill from here

Some of the performance figures are subdued by comparison with the start of last year as Aggreko is not benefiting from the one-off gains from the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the build-up to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the Asian Games.

BBC: Japan earthquake power supply deal nets Aggreko ?60m