by Michael Butterworth

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Former NHL great Wayne Gretzky has said he is "pleasantly surprised" at the level of ice hockey in China, and that the sport has great potential to grow in the country.

Speaking to Xinhua here in his role as global ambassador for Chinese hockey outfit Kunlun Red Star, the Canadian talked up the sport's growing presence in China.

"I'm really impressed by how nice and warm the Chinese people are, and I'm also pleasantly surprised by how much hockey there is here," said Gretzky. "They've got girls' teams and youth hockey programs now, and this is the second year that the NHL has played exhibition games here, so there's a sense that hockey is starting to get followed and watched more."

Despite recent high-profile attempts to improve the game's standing, ice hockey remains a fringe sport in China, where basketball and soccer, as well as table tennis and badminton continue to dominate. Drawing on his own experience of having transferred from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, Gretzky emphasized that enduring popularity can only be achieved from the bottom up.

"When I went to California in 1988, we made sure that we went out and around the city and concentrated on getting kids to come and participate. And once they do that, more and more kids fall in love with our game, and consequently it spreads."

However, the Canadian added the caveat that this would not be a quick process. "If you look at the registration of how many kids now play in California, Texas and Florida, it's amazing how many more are playing our sport, but it doesn't happen overnight. It's going to take years and years of kids playing and participating."

China's recent push to improve the standard of ice hockey is in part down to the country wanting to put up a good showing on home ice at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. However, Gretzky urged a note of caution on the country's medal prospects.

"Realistically, the best thing they want to do is be respectable. In the men's division, there's too many good teams, so it's going to take the men's team some time [to medal], it's not going to happen overnight."

Gretzky did however suggest that China's women may have a better chance of achieving home glory. "In the women's division, after the top three or four it gets pretty thin, so China's women's team has a better chance to medal and a good chance to be respectable in that sense."

Nicknamed "The Great One", Gretzky is widely regarded as the greatest ice hockey player of all time, with four Stanley Cup wins and more goals and assists than any other player in NHL history. And though he may have a wealth of experience to impart to youth players, Gretzky's advice to China's next generation of skaters is simple and straightforward.

"You've got to love it, and if you do, you're going to have a passion to do everything that you need to become the player that you need to become. In China, by nature, the people are hard-working, so I see no reason why they couldn't take to ice hockey in a relatively quick period of time."?