On my CNY trip to Harbin 哈尔滨 in northeast China, apart from enjoying the snow & ice festivals, Denis and I traveled to Yabuli 亚布力 "中国最大，设施最先进，条件最为优越的雪上运动场所 translation: the biggest, baddest and bestest ski resort in China."
Yeah maybe that was true back when they hosted the 1996 Asian Winter Games, but if you ask me, Yabuli left much to be desired.
2. Getting there
We joined a rip-off local tour in Harbin that included bus & lift ticket. It's about 200km SE of Harbin so the drive took about 3 hours. The drive was quite beautiful with snow blanketing everything as far as the eye could see.
There are other ways to get to Yabuli. There is a train that runs twice a day from Harbin station to Yabuli station. The station is about 5-10min by car to the main slope. Apparently there are lots of cheap and nice long-distance buses from Harbin to a nearby town, but I forgot the town name :P
3. Slope
In terms of snow, thanks to it's latitude, Yabuli is one of the few resorts in China to have natural snow. You can see from the map below, there are many sections to the resort. The yellow circle is the main mountain and where the advanced runs are (where we spent the day). In terms of skiable area, its definately one of the bigger ski resorts in China, if not the biggest. BUT, only IF and that's a big IF, they open more of the runs. From the map it seems there are 4 major runs but when we were there, only the run on the far left was open (see red arrow).
Here is a pic I took from mid-mountain, just before getting off the 1st lift. The run on the far left is the only one open, the big run in the middle was effectively closed. Someone said we could hike there from the top of the left run (???), but it didn't seem worth the effort.
Here's the interchange to the next chairlift (its a gondola!) that takes you to the top. Only people with "advanced" level armbands can take this one (and tourists). Most of the people you see here are beginners.
As there was only the one advanced run, we all got bored quite quickly. A 2-night trip turned into a 1-night trip. On the bright side, the weather was good, the snow was decent (they were grooming the trail on day 2) and the lifts have covers! The one run was quite long, probably the longest in China....from top to bottom would take around 5-10min. We also got to ride with guys on the junior national team...they practice everyday from 5-10am and then 2-4pm!
4. Base
This is basically the entire lift ticket / rental / food area. The rental gear looked pretty bad but the more expensive rental stuff looked alright.
Here's Denis & Jon having lunch in the restaurant upstairs. Lots to choose from the menu and food quality not bad. Not many people ate here, I think because most people were on tours and had to eat with their tour group.
5. Middleman madness
One big turn-off about the trip was that we were forced to deal with an incompetent local guy when we reached the ski slope. He works with the tour company to arrange the lift tickets, rentals, accommodation, etc. Actually there were several of these middlemen hanging out at the bottom of the slope. We had no choice as we had already paid the tour company, but for anyone else, try to avoid these guys.
6. Accomodation
Denis & I stayed in a traditional Chinese hostel called huokang 火炕 - which is a room with a raised block of concrete and inside there's a compartment for a wood fire to heatup the concrete. See here the concrete is covered with a yellow mat. We had a 150 RMB dinner (that's how they make $) and then setup our futons, concrete kept us warm throughout the night!
7. Bottomline
It's good to goto Yabuli as a side trip from Harbin. Definitely not worth it for snowboarding / skiing alone. Maybe when the sport becomes more popular and they open all the runs then it might be worth its own trip. Yabuli is alright, but the service at comparable resorts like Wanlong or Nanshan is better and more professional.
8. Cost
Our tour was 580 RMB for transport there and back + 1 day advanced ski pass.
Accomodation was 300 RMB (includes 1 day advanced ski pass)
Just one all day weekend lift pass 320 RMB
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