Skiing in Yabuli

Noah doing a great job with too much ski for a little boy!


Thomas having braved the line at the rope tow.


Sophie, trying to stay warm


The view from the hotel was the best part.

Day 2 Tuesday, February 5th

We got up and met our guide Galen, (a delightful guy to spoke english pretty well) who had arranged a car to drive us the 200km west to Yabuli International Ski Resort. We had lunch at a road side restaurant. I think we were the first westerners they had seen in a while. Lots of staring and smiling. We had a kilo of dumplings (a lot!) and a huge bowl of chicken fried rice. We all had tea and sprites. We paid the bill and Galen apoligized for the next 15 minutes about how expensive it was. The meal had been about 18 dollars for 7 of us (our family and the guide and driver). We assured him it was ok. The dumplings were delicious!

After arriving at what looked to be an enormous ski resort, still largely under construction, we went to the smallest hill at the resort and rented some skis. Either they never had or were all rented out, short enough skis for Sophie and Noah. Their skis were easily twice the lenght they should have been. We had about 12 men surrounding us, either disbelieving that we were going to be able to ski or just anxious to see westerners try their hill. We slowly made our way to the rope tow. The conditions were really pretty terrible. Apparently this has been their driest winter in a long time. We basically skied on ice which made us happy that the hill wasn't any larger than it was. (Basically a learners slope with a rope tow.)

Noah made two or three runs on his enormously long skis and decides playing in the snow at the bottom of the hill was more fun. The rest of us skied until our time ran out (we had to turn in the skis by 4pm.) We are now anxious for some more "real" skiing".

After a similar entourage as the team that helped us get our skis helped us check them back in we were off to the hotel. We quickly learned that a three star hotel in China is too few stars! The rooms were small, dirty and smelly! Had there been any other options we would have moved but since there weren't ,we stayed. The kids were relieved that we were going back to Harbin and the Shangri-La (a five star hotel!) We have spoiled them!