Ice Sports in Mountain Villages

By the 12th lunar month, the chilliest period of winter, the Caishi River running by Zhenzhuquan Village is solidly frozen over. Even the daytime highs in the mountain village that month average about minus five degrees Celsius. The afternoon sunlight more easily pierces the bare branches and glimmers on the icy surface of the river, which creates the illusion of a warmer day.

One morning, the silence was shattered by the clinking of skates hanging off the shoulders of 40 students from the village’s primary school approaching coach Zhao Jisheng. A semi-circle snaked around the coach in a red jacket, enclosing him for the first of the week’s two skating classes.

Mountain Ice Hockey Team  

Located in Yanqing District, about 100 kilometers from downtown Beijing, Zhenzhuquan, literally “Pearl Spring,” is a small village hidden in the mountains that derived its name from a year-round flowing spring. The primary school in the village has only 40 students from 17 surrounding villages.

A river called Caishi runs next to the village. Every winter transforms the river into a big natural ice rink and training ground for the ice hockey team of the local primary school, fueling big dreams for the students.

Zhao Jisheng, 69, used to teach P.E. at the College of P.E. and Sports of Beijing Normal University. The smiling elderly man has lived in Yanqing District since his retirement in 2013.

After Beijing won its bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, relying on the natural geographic and snow resources of the immediate area, the primary school in Zhenzhuquan Village started developing ice and snow courses in 2017.

By chance, Zhao ventured to the school to teach skating. The students showed great interest in the newcomer and the sport.

“Are you the skating teacher?” asked a first grader. “You may be able to skate fine, but you are too old.” Zhao burst into laughter. “Age is no big deal,” he replied. “I’ll show you later on the ice.” Zhao became determined to transfer all of his skills to them.

Today, ice skating is compulsory for all students at the primary school. The school is constantly improving its students’ athletic abilities.

Before the 2017 winter holiday, Zhao organized an ice hockey team by recruiting mountain kids and began devising a training area. The team mainly featured boys and girls from the fifth and sixth grades.

Zhao originally just hoped to improve physical fitness of students and pique their curiosity about ice sports, an aspiration supported by the school principal.

As a coach, Zhao not only teaches the children, but also serves as a grandfather. He began frequently visiting his players at home to cheer them up or discipline them when needed.

Li Yue, deputy team captain and one of the only two girls on the team, is a sixth grader with an open mind and outgoing character. Underneath a quiet facade, she shows brave and robust power on the ice rink. She lives with her grandparents in Shuiquanzi Village and used to go home every weekend to help her grandparents with chores. Now, ice hockey is her favo-
rite hobby. She believes that she can play in higher leagues when she is older if she practices hard.

Makeshift Rinks  

At Sihai Central Primary School, five kilometers from Zhenzhuquan Township, ice and snow sports classes are also bustling.

When the temperature drops below freezing point each year, the open space between the school’s classrooms covered with flowers during the warmer months is blanketed with plastic sheets and water and surrounded with old tires.  

The school has more than 70 boarding students. All of them are enthusiastic about learning to skate in P.E. classes. Every week when he finishes the river skating class at the Zhenzhuquan primary school, Zhao Jisheng jumps in his car and heads to Sihai Central Primary School for classes until sunset before driving more than 50 kilometers back home in downtown Yanqing.

To help the students gain more experience in real competitions, Zhao often takes them to compete in various ice hockey events at other schools, which is not only fun for the children, but also inspires a competitive spirit and Olympic-sized dreams.  

Taipingzhuang Central Primary School in Yanqing District turned a 4,000-square-meter vegetable field into an ice rink and established ice hockey teams, figure skating teams and speed skating teams which often compete with the primary school in Zhenzhuquan Village.

Chen Shuo, an alternate on the ice hockey team of the Zhenzhuquan primary school, couldn’t help but envy the artificial rinks as large as two basketball courts at Taipingzhuang Central Primary School. But he said this would only drive him to be more concentrated on training, so as to beat his rivals in competitions.

Even when spring melts the makeshift ice rinks into the original flowing rivers, flower beds and vegetable fields, winter’s memories in the children’s minds remain crystal clear until the first flakes fall the next year.