1DmkIV and 7D on Ice – Winter fun on Beijing’s Houhai lake from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Another wonderful video from Dan Chung, award-winning photojournalist at The Guardian‘s Beijing bureau.  This reminds me a lot of my childhood. :-)  Go here to read about Beijing’s winter sports in the old days.

Nightime shredding at the Nanshan Ski Resort (Photo courtesy of Mellow Parks).

Apparently Mellow Parks Construction — China’s experts for all things snowboarding — never bothered to check the calendar when they released its Magnum opus Nov. 14. For the snowboarding community both in China and around the world, the New Year comes six weeks early with the release of “Happy Niu Year,” a film documenting some of the most exciting riding in the People’s Republic to date.

“It is helping to put China on the map as far as the world snowboarding community is concerned,” said Olli Fenwick-Ross, marketing director for Mellow Parks. “People know the Nanshan Open now, but they don’t know what else is happening here. This film is reaching a broader audience, to show there are good snowboarders here in China.”

A teaser video is currently online, click here.

Heading down the hill at the Burton Qiaobo Indoor center (Photo courtesy of Mellow Parks).

The new film — which also includes video from the crew’s recent snowboarding trip to New Zealand as well as international rider’s footage shot at last year’s Nanshan Open, located just north of Beijing near Miyun — raises the bar yet again for the minds at Mellow Parks, the foundation for snowboarding in China and now the country’s most visible face of the sport.

“If Chinese kids are into snowboarding, there isn’t too much to watch in China,” said Fenwick-Ross. “They can watch international movies, but the riders, the mountains, the type of snow; it’s different in other countries. The film gives other Chinese some local boarders to look up to. There is a national pride attached.”

“Happy Niu Year” is also the latest in a string of successes that have been aimed at promoting snowboarding inside China. In January 2010, the 8th Annual Red Bull Nanshan Open will take place in Beijing, the largest snowboarding competition in Asia, with this year’s event featuring 18 international riders and six Chinese riders. That’s double the number of local snowboarder’s from last year’s competition.

The DVD currently can be found at Quiksilver, Nitro and other participating stores all over China, and is free to the public. In addition to screening “Happy Niu Year” recently in Beijing and holding a premiere in Shanghai, Mellow Parks Construction said they plan on releasing the entire video online for free starting in January. According to Fenwick-Ross, the bonus footage alone makes the whole DVD worth checking out.

Previously:

• Building Snowboarding from the Peak Down

— Zachary Franklin

Supported by the country’s juguo or whole-nation sports regime, China women’s curling team was established in 2001 and is now coached by Canadian Daniel Rafael, who’s also the head coach of China men’s curling team. The five team members, who together crowned Winter Universiade last month in Harbin, are all from Harbin Institute of Sports(哈尔滨体育学院), and have been receiving full-time training mostly in Canada and European countries, a predominant advantage compared with their fellow competitors.

photo: Netease

Previously:

• Harbin Winter Universiade Cold-shouldered by Chinese
• Chinese Women’s Ice Hockey Team Walking On Thin Ice

Related Read:

National Post:  China’s curling success has Canadian angle

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“I won’t watch any of the games, as I don’t play those sports,” said Liu Hongchao, a 25-year-old Beijinger who plays football in his free time. “No one here even watches Universiade, let alone the winter games.” Liu’s view is probably shared by most sports editors in Chinese media, as we couldn’t find coverage of the Winter Universiade on the front covers of all the sports publications and the Internet portals in the country so far. Winter sports seem too far away from most of Chinese people.

“We’re aware of this situation,” Lan Li, the deputy director of Chinese Winter Sports Federation told China Sports Review. “Objectively speaking, winter sports can only be found in some areas in the country. Its media awareness can’t compare with summer sports right now, and we’re not expecting to make a splash by hosting this Winter Universiade. You really have to do this step by step, cultivating the interests of University students is a good start. Things would go a lot more faster if we have some star players like Yao Ming in Basketball.”

After the opening ceremony last night on Feb 18, China defeated Slovak by 5 – 3 in the first ever women’s ice hockey match in Winter Universiade, as the sport was made a compulsory program this year by the International University Sports Federation. “We didn’t have a dream start and made some mistakes in the first period, but players did fight well later and that’s why we won,” said Paul Strople, head coach of the Chinese women team.

“The 18 ice hockey players are the cream of the crop in China. To tell you the truth, we only have about 50 women ice hockey players in the country. People feel weird when we rejected invitations of some overseas youth tournaments. We just don’t have enough players to send there,” Lan confessed. “We built two stadiums in universities in Harbin this time, hopefully more and more students would be interested in winter sports and start playing some games.”

The 2009 World Winter Universiade takes place from Feb. 18 to 28 in Harbin, the capital city of China’s Heilongjiang Province, with events also scheduled in Maorshan and Yabuli.The games will feature over 82 disciplines encompassed in the following 12 sports: Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Cross Country Skiing, Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ice Hockey, Long Track Speed Skating, Nordic Combined, Short Track Speed Skating, Ski Jumping and Snowboarding. According to the organizer, the total investment is about 3.1 billion RMB, roughly $ 453 million USD.

Previously:

• Chinese Women’s Ice Hockey Team Walking On Thin Ice

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