Living in Lingnan, there’s always a romantic scene of flying snow in your dreams. When it comes to snowy landscapes, people are often both excited and a little apprehensive—excited by the beauty of the snow, yet fearful of its chill. In fact, a dynamic journey across snowy plains can make you forget the cold, playing in the snow, building snowmen, having snowball fights, and skiing in a fairytale-like winter wonderland. Let the pure, flawless, crystal-clear goose-feather snowflakes fall on you, and your heart will feel warm inside. Whether you ski or not, with Lidong (the Beginning of Winter) behind us and temperatures dropping sharply, many large domestic ski resorts have started opening their doors to visitors. So what are their unique features?
By Reporter Luo Lei
Ski Resort Face-Off: The Northeast Wins
The Northeast: Two of the Best Ski Resorts in China, Suited for Professionals
Zhangjiakou: Several Resorts Opened, with Upgraded Slopes
The South: Two Resorts Opening in December, Focused on Experience-Based Slopes
Yabuli: Heilongjiang’s Yabuli is China’s most famous ski destination. Its snow is granular, featuring 18 slopes of beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, stretching over 30 kilometers with a vertical drop of about 530 meters—the longest alpine ski slope in China. Slope A1 is currently the longest intermediate slope in the country, measuring 3,842 meters in length, with a maximum gradient of 18, a minimum of 3, and an average width of 25 meters. It’s suitable for the general public and is known as the “Happy Slope.”
Wanda Changbaishan: The snow quality is close to that of Europe. The resort covers a total area of 7 square kilometers, with 43 ski runs divided into 9 advanced, 14 intermediate, and 20 beginner slopes. The total length of the slopes is about 30 kilometers, covering an area of 935,000 square meters, and can accommodate 8,000 skiers at once. The resort lies within the world’s prime ski latitude of 42°–46°, with snowfall of 1.5–2 meters and a ski season from mid-November to mid-April each year.
Zhangjiakou’s Chongli County: Located in the deep mountainous area of Bashang, it has heavy snowfall in winter, good snow quality, and a long ski season, with most mountain slopes ranging between 5° and 35°. For the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chongli will host snow events including snowboarding, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, and ski jumping. Chongli already has four major ski resorts: Wanlong, Secret Garden·Genting, Great Wall Ridge, and Dolomiti. These include 82 slopes of high, medium, and beginner levels spanning 69 kilometers, along with 24 cable cars and magic carpets totaling 23 kilometers. Currently, the most popular is Wanlong Ski Resort, which sits at an elevation of 2,110.3 meters at its highest point, with a vertical drop of 550 meters. It offers 22 developed slopes of beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels—2 beginner, 4 intermediate, and 16 advanced. Wanlong has a comprehensive medical insurance system and experienced snow patrollers. This year, its snowmaking system has been fully upgraded, adding new equipment to create a powder snow experience across more than 10 slopes.
Shennongjia Ski Resort: Known as the “Southern Ski Destination,” it’s the closest ski resort to Guangdong. The Shennongjia Tourist Ski Resort generally operates from mid-December to early February each year. The resort is located at Jiuhuping on Shennongjia Mountain, at an altitude of 2,000 meters—China’s southernmost tourist ski resort. Jiuhuping gets its name from its wine-flask-like shape. The resort has an average monthly winter temperature of -4°C, with snow cover for about 150 days a year and a total area of around 10,000 square meters. The snow here is of good quality and abundant.
Emei Mountain Ski Resort: Located to the right of the Ledengping parking lot, at an altitude of 2,500 meters, with winter temperatures usually staying between -5°C and -15°C. Skiing is available from December through the end of March each year. An annual Ice and Snow Hot Spring Festival is held here, with travel agencies offering promotional packages.
Hotel Comparison: Yabuli and Changbaishan Each Have Their Merits
Changbaishan: The Most High-End
Shennongjia: The Newest
Yabuli and Emei Mountain: More Suitable for Families
There are many hotels in Yabuli, but the most luxurious remains Club Med. The hotel’s design concept is based on the Wuhuashan (Five-Colored Mountain) landscape. The resort’s guest rooms are significantly larger than those of typical five-star business hotels. Walking barefoot on the automatically heated wooden floors, a wave of warmth rises. Club Med’s all-inclusive concept means drinks and snacks in the room fridge, as well as instant noodles, are all free and freely available.
The Wanda Changbaishan Resort offers quite a few hotel options, including Park Hyatt, The Westin, Grand Hyatt, Sheraton, Holiday Inn Resort, and Holiday Inn Suites Resort. Chongli’s Genting Grand Hotel is the most upscale locally, with nightly rates around 800–900 yuan. Other hotels are more basic, with many options under 300 yuan per night.
The newest options in Shennongjia are the Shennongjia Kanding Junlan Hotel and Shennong Hotel, with prices around 600 yuan per night. Most visitors stay in Muyu Town when traveling to Shennongjia, where hotels are concentrated and offer a range of choices, generally at 100–200 yuan per night.
High-end hotels in Emei Mountain include Emei Blue Lagoon Anantara Resort, Emei Century Sunshine Shangsai Hotel, and Emei Yueyuan Garden Restaurant.
Nearby Attractions Comparison
Zhangjiakou is Rather Monotonous
Yabuli: Ice Sculptures
Shennongjia: Snowy Forests
Emei Mountain: Hot Springs
Yabuli: A trip to Yabuli often includes a visit to Harbin to see ice sculptures, while a trip to Wanda usually connects with a visit to Changchun, Jilin. Changchun boasts several scenic, uniquely designed theme parks and has become even more famous in recent years for its winter activities and snow sculpture art. With the snow come the annual Changchun Ice and Snow Tourism Festival, with events at Jingyue Lake, Lianhua Mountain, Miaoxiang Mountain, and Xinli Lake.
Zhangjiakou Chongli: Connects with Beijing, allowing visits to the Great Wall and hutong tours, with temple fairs also available in winter.
Shennongjia: Beyond skiing, you can also visit Shennongding to admire the snowy forests and tree-covered frost, explore the Xiangxiyuan in Muyu Town, or pay homage to ancestors at the Shennong Altar. The area is rich in flora and fauna. Aside from the snowy forests and frosted trees of Shennongding, the Dalongtan Golden Snub-nosed Monkey Research Base is also worth a visit.
Emei Mountain: Viewing snow at the Golden Summit has long been a much-talked-about experience. Winter is the best season to witness Emei Mountain’s spectacular sights and the ideal time to soak in the hot springs of Qiliping. Qiliping, located in the middle section of Emei Mountain at an altitude of about 1,300 meters in Qiliping Village, Hongya County, Meishan City, offers the chance to soak in warm spring water while watching snowflakes fall—a perfect way to wash away fatigue.
Convenience and Cost-Effectiveness Comparison
Mount Emei, being closer, comes out on top
Zhangjiakou and Mount Emei: most convenient, suitable for independent travel
Changbai Mountain and Shennongjia: better value when joining a tour
Zhangjiakou Chongli: approximately 220 kilometers from Beijing. Currently, direct ski shuttles from Beijing to Chongli have been launched, providing direct access from downtown Beijing to Zhangjiakou Airport, train station, and various ski resorts and hotels in Chongli. Taking Wulong as an example, the reference price for a ski ticket + equipment on weekdays and weekends during peak season is 430 RMB for two hours, one-time sightseeing fee is 100 RMB, and the single ski lift ticket is 50 RMB per person.
Mount Emei: Fly from Guangzhou to Chengdu. Shuangliu Airport has a high-speed rail station, which can take you directly to cities along the high-speed rail line. At the same time, the north square of the Emeishan High-Speed Railway Station has a long-distance passenger ticketing point for the scenic area, with shuttle buses running regularly to Qingyin Pavilion, Wannian Temple, and Leidongping.
Changbai Mountain: Currently, direct flights from Guangzhou to Changbai Mountain make a stop in Shenyang, with the whole journey taking about 5 hours and 55 minutes. Ticket prices are generally around 75% of the full fare, starting from 1885 RMB excluding taxes. Ski passes are typically 650 RMB per day, valid for use on the day of purchase only and not across multiple days. However, if you choose a local travel agency tour to Changbai Mountain for 4–7 days, the price ranges between 3500–4500 RMB. For those departing from Guangzhou to ski in Shennongjia, it is usually combined with visits to Wudang Mountain, the Three Gorges, or Xianning Hot Springs. A 5-day high-speed rail tour generally costs just over 2000 RMB. For individual travelers, Shennongjia Airport is now operational, though there are currently no direct flights from Guangzhou. Travelers can take an early flight with a transfer in Wuhan, where ticket prices are currently very low. The flight time from Wuhan to Shennongjia is about 1 hour, with one-way untaxed fares around 300 RMB.
Yabuli: Popular mainly among experienced skiers. There are direct flights or flights with stops (such as in Dalian) from Guangzhou to Harbin, with direct flights taking about 4 hours. Club Med offers paid airport transfers to the resort. Transportation costs are high, there are few group tour options, making it generally the most expensive overall.