Chinese Ski Trip

So, by the kindness of China Hockey and Mr. An, Tim and I were treated to a two day, one night ski trip. The mountain was 90 km northeast of Harbin. The most dangerous part was the traveling to and from the mountain at breakneck speed, with the “tall man” at the wheel, over snow covered highways. Being that it was the New Year’s holiday, all the tollbooths were closed and the several hundred people hired to shovel the roads were home enjoying some time with family. On the journey up, it took us about 2 hours to cover the 90 km, as we had to slow down at some points for the snow covering the road. The trip took us through Midwest style flat agricultural plains, then some wide ranging hillside agriculture, reminiscent of my trip through Saskatchewan. After about 90 minutes, we reached the mountains. Along the way there were clusters of homes, mostly run down. Instead of spreading out like you might find in America, the “villages” were 50-100 homes crammed into what can only be described as a city-like close existence with the walls of houses no more than 2-3 feet apart. It was very interesting. During the trip we fish tailed once on the highway and had a close call with a ditch just after getting off the highway while hitting an ice slick. But, amazingly we made it in one piece.

We arrived at the mountain around noon. There was one lodge, and one under construction. The picture of the lodge below is neat as you can see the reflection of the mountain in the mirrored lobby windows.


They showed us to our room, which consisted of a door, 3 walls, a window, two small tables and four single beds. The bathroom was down the hall and the shower room was next door to us. Our room was on the second floor had an open balcony to the huge lobby below.


We were set up in the room and then taken for some lunch at the cafeteria in the lodge, while the “Tall Man” headed home.

After lunch, we decided to get some gear and try some afternoon skiing. First, we had to get our electronic badges, then we used those to get some skis and boots and poles at the next desk. The badges also swiped across the turnstiles at the entrance to the lift to activate them. The skis are much shorter than Tim and I remember as it had been about 10 years since either of us had skied. Anyway we headed out the mountain, which had but three trails. However, the two outside trails were closed.


There was one main chairlift that had a drop-off point about 1/3 of the way up, and then finished at the top of the mountain.


Apparently, the snow is mostly man made and the other two trails did not have enough snow to ski on. At the top of the mountain there was a little “Coffee Shop” that consisted of a building with a vending machine and a girl to give you change.


The one trail had a couple of nice elevation changes at the top and leveled out near the bottom, but not too bad and fairly enjoyable. The chairlift was fairly slow and quite cold near the top. We skied a few times and then called it quits for the day. Below, there is a view from the top and beneath it a view from about 1/3 way down from the top.


After the skiing we relaxed a little. And then, by chance, I ran into an old translator, Brandon, who had translated for me when I was doing the coaching clinic back in November. He is in school for ski administration and often spends time up at the mountain. He was helping to translate for a young couple. The man was from Austria and the woman from Switzerland. She had come for an intensive Chinese language class in Beijing, and they were checking out the skiing before her class got started. The five of us had dinner together and chatted for a while about our experiences.

We asked Brandon, what went on at night, and found out, NOTHING, no band, no bar. There were a couple of flat screen TVs in the lobby playing Harry Potter dubbed in Chinese, but that was it. So we went off to our rooms to relax a bit. However, at 8:30 we were called outside for an impromptu (?) fireworks display. It consisted of about 25 boxes full of fireworks in the parking lot, dangerously close to the lodge which were lit on fire by crazy running Chinese men. The fireworks went off low and some debris even hit the crowd. The Chinese were unfazed, but the non-asians like myself were close to the door.


After that, we got quite a bit of rest that night…

The next day we skied for a couple hours in the morning, had lunch, skied a little more and then waited about 20 minutes for the “Tall Man” to arrive. It was a bright sunny day, unlike the hazy first day. So it was a great day to be out on the mountain.
On our first trip up mountain, we hopped into the “Coffee Shop” as Tim wanted some coffee. I thought I would try the vending machine to get some OJ, and to my surprise the can came out of the machine, PIPING HOT. It was very odd, but strangely good. Tim got his coffee from the machine also, and all was good.

The ride home, was a death defying journey. Although we arrived in a car the day before, the “Tall Man” showed up to take us home in a small bus, apparently filled with his family: two sisters, one of whom is married and had her husband with her, the girls' mother and grandmother. Grandma was very nice and offered us some fruit. The younger girl (13) spoke English fairly well and translated on the ride. Grandma seemed to know some English too.

However, the ride home was taken at astounding speeds over the same snow covered roads. The trip that took 2 hours up in a car, took about 1 hour home in the bus, with Tim and I bounding up and down in the back as we hit numerous pot holes at high speeds. We dropped off the family around Harbin on our way in, and somehow made it home safely, happy to be safely back at the training center.

Our ski trip over, we had a full day of rest ahead of us before the coaching started again. On Feb 5th, the team will head north on the train to Jia Mu Si to participate in a boys hockey tournament for 6 days, so we must prepare.