I'm sure all you boarders & skiers are wondering what's a Chinese ski resort like? Let me preface this by saying that I've experience in a number of ski resorts in countries like USA, Canada, France, Japan, Australia, so I like to think I know what I'm talking about.
Needless to say considering there was not a lot of natural snow, I was impressed with Wanlong. The snow is decent (hard packed & dry), runs are medium length, resort seems organized, food is good, hotel was great.
Wanlong is about 4 hours from Beijing above a town called Zhangjiakou 张家口. Because it is so far away, you usually stay overnight.
The mountain itself is not very big...there are 2 main charilifts and a 3rd one in the middle that goes to the top. There is also a cute cabin at the very top where you can rest and warmup. The runs are medium in length (much longer than the better known Nanshan Ski Resort 南山滑雪场). The difficuly is also much harder than Nanshan, steeper gradient + harder snow. This is not a place for beginners.
I was pleasently surprised with the average skill level of all the skiers/boarders. This means there were less people and no long lift lines! The only few improvements would be to speed up the chairlifts and put in more jumps or a park for doing tricks.
I also must warn you that during Jan it is damn cold. At the bottom it is about -5-10C but on top with the wind sheild it must have been -15-20. Goggles and face mask are a must! Especially if you are going full speed down from the very top. I could see frozen drops of water on my friend's eyelashes.
Food
There is a large cafeteria in the 2/F main building. There was much variety: noodles, dumplings, rice, pasta, sandwich, etc., quality was not bad. The only bad thing is everyone must purchase a card and put $ in the card to buy food.
Shuanglong Hotel 双龙酒店
Besides snowboarding, this was arguably the best thing of the trip. 5 of us stayed in a 2 bedroom suite, with 2 beds in each room, so we just added a mattress for the 5th person.
The rooms were fully equipped, and I mean fully equipped, includes the usual plus complementary: desktop computer, humidifier in shape of bear, Dove chocolate bars x 5, plate of fruit, ski magazines, hotplate & hotpot, eating utensils, plates, bowls, water machine, coffee mugs, coffee, toothbrush, toothpaste, toothbrush mugs, etc. Breakfast was full Chinese + Western buffet with tonnes of choices. Most impressive for a Chinese hotel.
Overall a nice resort and I would be happy to go again.
Cost (RMB / person)
Bus there and back......................200
Hotel (suite for 4+1bed)................324
Lift ticket 1.5 days (15% discount)....399
Total........................................923
The mountain itself is not very big...there are 2 main charilifts and a 3rd one in the middle that goes to the top. There is also a cute cabin at the very top where you can rest and warmup. The runs are medium in length (much longer than the better known Nanshan Ski Resort 南山滑雪场). The difficuly is also much harder than Nanshan, steeper gradient + harder snow. This is not a place for beginners.
I was pleasently surprised with the average skill level of all the skiers/boarders. This means there were less people and no long lift lines! The only few improvements would be to speed up the chairlifts and put in more jumps or a park for doing tricks.
I also must warn you that during Jan it is damn cold. At the bottom it is about -5-10C but on top with the wind sheild it must have been -15-20. Goggles and face mask are a must! Especially if you are going full speed down from the very top. I could see frozen drops of water on my friend's eyelashes.
Food
There is a large cafeteria in the 2/F main building. There was much variety: noodles, dumplings, rice, pasta, sandwich, etc., quality was not bad. The only bad thing is everyone must purchase a card and put $ in the card to buy food.
Shuanglong Hotel 双龙酒店
Besides snowboarding, this was arguably the best thing of the trip. 5 of us stayed in a 2 bedroom suite, with 2 beds in each room, so we just added a mattress for the 5th person.
The rooms were fully equipped, and I mean fully equipped, includes the usual plus complementary: desktop computer, humidifier in shape of bear, Dove chocolate bars x 5, plate of fruit, ski magazines, hotplate & hotpot, eating utensils, plates, bowls, water machine, coffee mugs, coffee, toothbrush, toothpaste, toothbrush mugs, etc. Breakfast was full Chinese + Western buffet with tonnes of choices. Most impressive for a Chinese hotel.
Overall a nice resort and I would be happy to go again.
Cost (RMB / person)
Bus there and back......................200
Hotel (suite for 4+1bed)................324
Lift ticket 1.5 days (15% discount)....399
Total........................................923
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3 comments:
we loved your review and now some friends decided we should go skiing. all the offers on the internet that we cpuld find were for a whole weekend but we only want to stay one night. do you maybe knnow who i can contact from wanlong to book a private trip?
thanks,
Josh
Hi,
No need for tour, u can just to call up the Wanlong hotel and book a room for 1 night (i stayed in silver dragon suite...so i'm not sure if normal room will have all the amenities i mentioned).
Then just ask the hotel to arrange van / bus to pick u up from Beijing (usually from Gongti North gate). If u have 6 people u can have the van all to urselves.
I just went again last weekend, conditions were great, weather was great, not cold!
Good luck!
- A
hi, thank you for writing this and it seems pretty interesting skiing/snowboarding in china. i always wanted to try in china but little worry about their facilities whether is safe enough to reach up to the mountains! maybe i should persuade some of my friends to go....cheers!;)
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