Snowboarding in Beijing- Huaibei Ski Resort

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Snowboarding in China is not so much the snowboarding part as the in China part. We knew this when we headed out with our friends Alex and Bella to explore Beijing Huaibei International Ski Resort on 1/28/2014. The resort offers a morning bus from Beijing at 8:30am and it takes about 1hr to arrive at the little mountain next to the Great Wall.

Shannon and I each payed abut 200RMB ($33USD) for our bus ride, lift tickets and rentals. The mountain offers snowboard and ski rentals, as well as jackets, snow pants and even mittens and hats. Though the mountain was not overly crowded at least half the guest were wearing identical gear. The snowboards and boots were good quality, but well used and little beat up. I eventually had to ask for the screwdriver to set the bindings how we wanted.

If it can be called that "the resort" is anything but international, as the name might have you believe. It offers almost 4km of terrain, with six ski runs: one advanced, 2 intermediate and three for beginners. However, all six runs offer beautiful views of the only rectangular wall towers on the Great Wall. The longest and most difficult run is more akin to a challenging blue square than a black diamond and only 860 meters long. There was a small terrain park, serviced by a tow-bar, that had a variety of boxes and rails as well as 3 poorly cut jumps and short quarter pipe.

The day was warm, the snow soft, the lift lines short and the scenery was spectacular. Though the majority of guest were beginners it did not stop them from attempting all of the mountains trails which offered us both some amusement and a few somewhat dangerous close encounters with out of control skiers. We all had a great time enjoying a beautiful day in the mountains and some of the best snowboarding in Beijing.

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Photos

From Lift (2)
Great Wall

Trail sign
"The length is 820m….The ski trail is for sophisticated ski enthusiast…"

Lower the bar
"Please put down the fence of the cableway"

Comments

[kelly]

Pictures
Boarding with the Great Wall in the background - Wow! - what a view!!!

[Jill Pelletier]

Amazing
What a great picture of you boarding with the Great Wall behind you. Around here $33 would only buy you lunch. I hope you had a great time. Jill

[Cheryl Ferreira]

Looks great Kendall and Shannon! Glad you were able to have some fun. It all looks like a beginner\'s course. :)

[Amy E]

Great Pics!

[Kristen]

Thank you!
Thanks for writing this blog it is awesome and I look forward to reading the new entries. I feel like I'm learning a ton through it. How cool that you could go snowboarding next to an ancient relic? Glad you're getting some outdoor snow sports in:) Love you guys!!