Winter sports like ice skating and skiing are still pretty new in China, but it’s definitely available. And recently, it’s been really cold in Beijing, so I decided to explore what winter in Beijing had to offer. I went ice skating on Houhai, a lake north of the Forbidden City (probably man-made), with friends a couple of weekends ago. It was packed with people, many of whom could not really skate. But the Chinese have come up with a hilarious solution for those people – recycled school chairs tacked on a little sled that people can sit on and get pushed around the ice. A lot of people simply just walk on the ice without skates too. And unlike ice skating in the States, there is actually quite a few speed skaters on the ice too, some of whom were really good. The ice is only resurfaced once a day so it’s pretty messed up by the afternoon. It was good, wholesome fun, but absolutely freezing (still can’t compare to Harbin!).
This past weekend, my friends Kumi and Morgan convinced me to go skiing. I haven’t skied in many years. Frankly, I’m terrible at it and terrified of slopes. Not a good combination. But Chinese people really do not know how to ski and the slopes here are short and easy. It really was a confidence booster to any bad skier. Definitely a good place to learn to ski – they have ski attendants whose sole job is to rush from fallen skier to fallen skier and pick them up. When someone knocked me over, my friend happened to be calling so the guy even helped me unzip my jacket pocket and hand me my cell phone. He then stood there waiting for me to be done. While I was taking this call in an awkward position lying on my back on the slope, another skier came too precariously close to me so another attendant ran over to guard me as well. After I was done talking, the two of them picked me up. Talk about service (which is usually horrible in China)! The only downside to the bunny slope was that it was super crowded and lining up to go on the lifts took forever. I think I only managed to make it up the hill 5 times in 4 hours. I also fell off the lift once and had to climb up the hill carrying my skis. While I had fun skiing, the equipment is just too heavy for me to ever love it. Maybe I should try snowboarding next time.
After skiing, we grabbed a super late lunch, attended a modern dance performance and then went ROLLER SKATING!! The rink was super ghetto and dark, but roller skating is definitely a sport that the Chinese excel at. While I teetered precariously in my roller skates, the Chinese were zipping by backwards and forwards with fancy footwork. And a Chinese guy came up to me to ask me for permission to “take your friends to play.” I was so confused until I realized he just wanted to drag them around the rink. The episode was hysterical since Kumi thought he was harassing me or trying to pick me up and kept shouting “leave her alone” and “get away from her” while the whole time, he was trying to pick her and Morgan up.
Our super active weekends have been awesome so we’re planning to go camping on the Great Wall and horseback riding on the grasslands when it warms up. But in the meantime, I’m leaving for India tomorrow! Unexpectedly got an email from a friend inviting me to a wedding in New Delhi, so I'm going to take part in my first Indian wedding. Should be an amazing 3-day affair. Then I'm traveling around Rajasthan, going to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and going to Varansi to visit one of India's holiest cities with a couple of friends, Jia and Sabrina. So excited!
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