“I’ll get 3 hour ski passes and ease myself into snowboarding, and spend the rest of the time relaxing.”

Me, 2 days before snowboarding in Songhua, Jilin.

I’ve always been a thrill-seeker, up for adventures and challenges – but I had never tried snowboarding. One year my family ventured to New Zealand for a month long caravan trip. I had asked if I could try skiing but my parents quickly objected saying, “We don’t want broken bones on this trip.” Fair enough. But the desire to try it stayed quietly huddled in a nook in my brain.

So whilst living in Shanghai, I heard about Changbaishan (Chaing Bai Mountain) in Jilin. This mountain borders North Korea (instant fascination for me) and, supposedly, has some of the best slopes in China! I planned the trip to Jilin, prepared myself physically and mentally for the -25C temperatures, braced for the pain that I’d no doubt endure, and then there was a major Covid-19 outbreak in Northern China and my plans crumbled.

Come December 2021, I had managed to visit 14 provinces throughout the year, and decided to add another one to the list. It was time for Jilin! The previous fixation on getting to Changbaishan/Paektu (Korean) stemmed from the knowledge that this was a border with North Korea. I had previously been to Dandong and seen North Korea with my own eyes, and it was bizarre.

After an hour long (expensive) Didi journey, I arrived at my hostel, the weather app showing ‘feels like -27C’ and was immediately thankful for Northern China’s heated floors. The bar downstairs was pumping, woodfire burning in the background, but I decided to skip the socialising, scoffed down some instant noodles and hit the sack.

I woke up to a crystal clear morning, sun shining high in the sky, but temperatures so cold I had lost feeling in my fingers and toes within minutes of being outside. Get us to the slopes!

In Jilin, particularly during peak seasons, the slopes are littered with instructors of varying qualifications. We had an Intermediate Instructor who really knew what he was doing and who made us feel safe and focused. But a lot of instructors means a lot of students, so it can get busy.

We quickly got more confident and moved on up to the chair lift. The slope was steeper and suddenly there weren’t so many instructors catching turtle-padded newbies around. We continued to practice what our instructor had taught us, the muscles in our legs and core becoming more adjusted each run. Eventually it was time for the Black…

But it was just to admire the pros that were zooming past us effortlessly. The view was stunning, the narrow and steep nature of the slope was impressive, but there was no way we’d be attempting to slide down that on a board anytime soon. For now, we would just sip on the tea that was stationed at all chair lift exits and try to keep our fingers from freezing off.

So did I leave with broken bones, or am I a snowboarding pro now?

You tell me.

No but seriously, as proud of that video as I am, that was taken on the third day, and in reality, my body was in immense PAIN. The original plan of 3 hour days on the slopes turned into 8 hour days of nonstop snowboarding – I was obsessed! However, it was often tiring and I found myself relying on my knees for rest support. Once I started picking up speed, my tailbone copped it the worst.

One unfortunate afternoon, I was feeling confident, making the S formation I had learnt and doing it at speed. When your body is so physically exhausted and the temperatures are at least 15 below zero, however, it isn’t always easy to make gliding movements. I fell on my tailbone so hard that I was in a paralysed state of shock for a hot second. As if that wasn’t enough, I proceeded to fall on the same spot a few more times until I decided it was beer-o’clock.

In Summary

I felt like snowboarding was difficult to pick up and took a lot of persistent practice, but once I understood how to relax my body and move fluidly, it started to feel natural and I was improving quickly. I was particularly stoked with my experience at Songhua, from the cheap hostel to the very reasonable ski pass rates.

Despite the pain, I was completely hooked on the feeling that snowboarding gave me. After my time came to a close in Jilin, I couldn’t wait to return to the snow. Till next time!

– Tash