About sixty kilometers from Beijing, you can find Nanshan, one of the largest ski resorts in northern China. If the hills cannot be compared to European mountains, Nanshan remains the perfect place to indulge in winter sports.

Skiing in Beijing, until a few years ago, was an enormous challenge. The capital currently has a dozen ski resorts of various sizes in its periphery. Located in the Miyun county, about sixty kilometers from Beijing, the village of Nanshan remains one of the largest and among the best-equipped in northern China.

On an area of nearly 267 hectares, Nanshan has 12 trails for beginners, intermediate and advanced, a snowboarding park and snow bike trail for children. Artificial snow is provided by 12 snow guns and two packers imported from Austria, as real snow becomes increasingly scarcer in Beijing. In addition, there are two chairlifts and one slide of more than 1.3 m wide coming directly from Germany.

On the hotel side, Nanshan has six hotels of two, three, four and five stars at a distance of between 3 and 30 km from the station. Restaurants with terrace and constructed in wood also offer snacks, Western cuisine, Japanese, Korean or Chinese. Nanshan is therefore resolutely an international station. "I thought Nanshan would have a more provincial side. I was quite surprised at the quality of the equipment, "says Rajeev Gupta, a novice skier.

The 25 year old Indian who has done winter sports only three times in his life admits having had "a lot of a priori before coming." And the comparison with the West is inevitable. "The trails are not as difficult as that in Quebec or France. But the artificial snow is similar to Montreal," he says. "The surroundings of the village are not very pretty, but they provide an authentic Chinese sense," he says as he tries desperately to slow down.

Cleaner

Despite its many falls, Rajeev Gupta did not wish to take lessons with one of 70 Chinese and foreign ski instructors. "I prefer to learn on my own on the children's slope," he said. Yet, the snow is of better quality on the blue and red slopes. If the gentle slopes don't really satisfy the most confirmed skiers, the ice of black slope that dominates the place tends to discourage more than a few.

Ditto for the snowboarding park, shunned this Sunday by the families. Individual snowboarders, on the other hand, prefer to mingle with skiers to practice this new sport in China. As for Qi Wei, a 28 year old Hong Kongese who already came to Nanshan four times. "I never thought to ski in Beijing. Initially, I was quite surprised to see so many Europeans, I would have thought they would have been disdainful," she recalls.

"In one year, the station has grown and has become cleaner too," says one who has chosen snowboarding rather than skiing for her inability to "keep her legs together." There is another, more superficial, reason: "Snowboarding and snowboarding clothes are cooler than skiing. And snowboarders are much cuter than skiers, "she smiles. Qi Wei also acknowledges having been surprised by the number of Chinese at Nanshan. " They represent more than half of the clientele here. Snowboarding is a real success among young Chinese. " And in conclusion: "They are becoming more wealthy. We can see that they really want to invest in this sport. "