After Beijing, Caren and I arranged a trip to the Duolemeidi ski resort in ChongLi county of Hebei Province. A lot of people asked me what skiing is like in China, so I have provided some details below. I hope that the information is useful if you plan to ski in ChongLi and the usual photos follow.
Transport to/from Beijing: we arranged a shared car from Beijing with our resort contact and the transfer only took two and a half hours. If you can’t get a car, you can catch a train to ZhangJiaKou South followed by a local bus transfer to ChongLi itself, though this will take almost twice as long. From ChongLi it takes about 20 minutes to reach the ski resorts each morning. A 10RMB bus leaves for Duolemeidi at 7:30AM and returns at 5:30PM, or you can catch a taxi any time for 50RMB (note: you will have to negotiate a price). There was also a bus for WanLong, but I do not know the schedule or pricing.
Staying in ChongLi: heading to ChongLi from Beijing, you pass through spectacular mountain ranges, though when we visited, the unusual lack of snow made for a bleak vista. ChongLi itself is far from a picture-perfect resort town, but there are two good hotels, with decent restaurants: the iSnow and the RongChen. The iSnow is traditionally Chinese, offering good quality rooms at a reasonable price. The RongChen is newer, with a spa and karaoke bar, but it is more expensive. The Duolemeidi and WanLong ski resorts are both around 20 minutes from ChongLi. ChongLi is also surrounded by some spectacular hiking trails and the great wall is only a 30 minute taxi ride away. Unfortunately, there appears to be very little nightlife in ChongLi, so don’t expect much in the way of après-ski.
The Duolemeidi Resort: Duolemeidi covers two 2000M peaks and the maximum vertical descent is about 400M. The resort offers a total of seven major runs, each around 1500M long. There is one black run and five red runs, all of which connect to a 500M blue run leading back to the base. There is also a small snow park with a rail and jumps, but no half-pipe. One of the two peaks is served by a high speed chair lift and the other by a button lift. I was very impressed by the grooming and despite the lack of recent snow the slopes remained pristine throughout the day. We visited during peak period for the resort, but it was still not that busy by European standards. The standard of equipment is fairly good; however, beware if you are tall or have big feet, as the rental store tends to run out of large sized equipment during busy periods. While there is no group ski school, the price of private instruction is low enough to make this a feasible alternative. I was pleasantly surprised by the lodge at the base. You can get cheap beers and good value Chinese, Korean or Italian food. The pizza was actually one of the best I have eaten in China. While we didn’t visit WanLong, from what I heard, it is a little larger than Duolemeidi with similar facilities. On the ride back to Beijing, we shared a car with the lodge manager, who told us that the resort will soon add a condo hotel near the slopes and a couple of new runs from the chair-lift.
Recommendations: the Heibei slopes are similar to the Scandinavian resorts I have visited like Geilo, Hemsedal and Are, being small, but offering quiet, well groomed slopes and good facilities. Given the small size of the resorts, I would suggest spending a couple of days at each. If you have time, you could also spend a day hiking the trails around ChongLi and another day visiting the Great Wall. It is possible to book everything yourself, but if you don’t speak Chinese, I would recommend booking through an agent of the resort. Vivian from Duolemeidi speaks excellent English and arranged everything for us including transport, hotel, ski hire and lessons. You can contact her at (duolemeidi@gmail.com). I also found this site really helpful in planning our trip (http://www.chinaskitours.com/). The official Duolemeidi and Wanlong sites can be found here (http://www.duolemeidiski.com) and here (http://www.wlski.com/). Some photos of the trip follow:
Walking Along the Frozen River in ChongLi
Caren Takes her First Lesson
I Cruise Down a Blue Run
A Beautiful Day on the Slopes
Looking From One Peak to the Other
Ready for the Big Runs - Caren About to Try her First Red!
View from the Beginner Slope
Bar Blanc Near the Summit
All in all, we had a great time at Duolemeidi. Its not the alps, but I would highly recommend it for a short ski or snowboard trip. Hopefully I will get to try China's other big ski areas WanLong and Yabuli before I leave.
