Wanlong Ski Area, Hebei, China

5homershk 5:00 PM Jan 3, 2016

Excellent alternative to skiing in Japan and/or Korea
Had our first ski experience in China. Surprisingly positive. First and most importantly; having been exposed to Chinese 'ways' for so many years we were very surprised that everything worked smoothly in Wanlong and (queuing)-behavior was exemplary. The ski resort is small. Fine for beginners/kids, less so for the more experienced (I read that Wanda ski resort near the Korean border is very good). We've often skied in Korea. The Wanlong resort seems to have been modeled after e.g. High One and Yongpyong in Korea. Rental is organized well, equipment is close to new, lifts are excellent. FYI; Wanlong will be one of the venues the 2022 Winter Olympics will be held. You can see this already; hotels & other facilities are being build at breakneck speed. We wanted to combine ski with 3 days culture/Beijing. Transport is a pain!. The cheapest way would be to fly direct to Zhangjiakou from one of the main Chinese airports, and take a 65km taxi to Wanlong (about RMB 250). Getting to Beijing is possible by train but takes a long time. We took a taxi straight from Wanlong to Beijing Tianmen area at RMB 1500 stopping on the way at the Great Wall. Another option could be to rent a car at Beijing airport. At RMB 10 you can have your driving license validated for China (short medical exam/etc), but such temp license isn't valid outside Beijing meaning you'd have to register at Zhangjiakou police station as well. When will China become more accessible, allowing self-drive? Concerning hotels; you could get a cheap deal around RMB 500 for a fam room in Chongli, 11km from the ski piste. But it's a totally new and very uninspiring town with absolutely nothing to do. Taxi is cheap, to be called in by the concierge. We stayed at the Shuanglong hotel rating it 9 out of 10. See my other review for that. In short; if you have a short weekend and need to choose between Japan/Korea/China, we highly recommend checking out this place. It's absolutely underrated!

4larry0808 5:00 PM Feb 15, 2014

A revelation!
Family ski trip over a weekend by low-intermediate skiers. First of all, I should say that we have only ever skied in China so I can't compare to a major Western resort. Previous trips have been to Nanshan which frankly looks a bit pathetic in comparison! Wanlong is a huge resort with some small slopes for beginners, a couple of long green/red runs and a number of advanced runs for more capable skiers and snowboarders. These are proper ski runs of a couple of kilometers or more. Beautiful scenery, a decent place to eat at the top of the mountain, patrolled by what at least looked like professional medical staff. Fairly smooth process paying and picking up equipment, which was decent quality. We went the weekend after Spring Festival, practically nobody was on the bigger slopes so no crowds to contend with. On the minus side, staff we dealt with did not speak English and much of signage was not in English. Take your time working out which runs are appropriate for your ability, I didn't and ended up taking a 60 meter fall down a blue run by mistake - probably my fault and maybe not an issue with those more familiar with proper ski resorts (or better skiers)! Don't forget any of your kit because the shops in the main building are pretty expensive. A few international hotels in the area but not much else in the way of restaurants and night life. This is by my standards a great resort, beautiful, well run and a welcome break from the smog and traffic of Beijing.