China`s good for Skiing,too.

When you think of China, winter sports normally are not the first thing that jump into your mind. Or have you ever seen or a Chinese on skis or a snowboard?

Well, I haven`t. Although I´m living in China`s northeast for over a year, with its 5 months of winter and temperatures down to - 30 °. Until recently, when we booked a one day tour to a local recreation area that`s converted into a ski resort during winter - well, that might have been the reason I never saw one. They don`t ski IN a metropole with 8 million people.

It´s a pretty good deal - the 30 km busride to the resort and back, entrance and equipment rental fee as well as insurance included for together 125 RMB (about 15 €). Pretty cheap for a whole afternoon in the snow, at least according to western standards.

So we and our Malaysian co-worker Danny went. For him it was his first time skiing ever - and our last time goes way back as well - we were still in school then.

The day we went was a national holiday, so we expected, as usual when you go to somewhere public where you can have fun or recreate, heaps of people - and there was even a local snowboard series competition that day. First price 3000 RMB (about 370 €) - that`s close to the average monthly income in this country.

But our fears were without reason - although we had to wait almost an hour till we got our ski passes, but that was due to poor organization by the company - unfortunately not that unusual in China.

Anyhoo, off we went - first renting the gear, which they unexpectedly and also conveniently had in big sizes,too:

 And the on to the slopes. Well, as there are no real mountains around Shenyang, it was rather just bigger and smaller ant hills:

 But we had a lot of fun, as it wasn`t as crowded as expected, especially on the "bigger ant hill", as most Chinese stayed on the not so steep slopes. You could clearly see that skiing is a sport that the Chinese just start to discover. And are also able to afford, as equipment for them doesn`t come as cheap as it comes for us. So there were lots of beginners on those slopes, more falling and sitting on their butts than actually skiing down the hills. I for myself was surprised that after more than ten years without I still was able to get down the hill without even falling down once. Except for that one time I was goofing off on the lift and fell out.

Danny afterwards said next time he´ll bring a plastic bag and will slide down the hill on his butt, as this was where he spent most of his afternoon. But he had fun, too.

Me and him with some snow sculptures - they´re everywhere here in winter:

 And what of course makes a ski resort complete - a camel ride !?