Young girl creates own ski tracks to learn skiing on vast snow-covered land in NW China's Xinjiang

With no standard ski tracks available in her village, Yinhua, a 13-year-old Tuvan, has taught herself how to ski on snow-covered land around her village in Altay, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Altay is said to be the place where the sport of skiing first originated, and it is a place where skiing remains a major means of transportation for locals. Hemu village, the northwesternmost village in China, is where the Tuvans live.

Starting to learn skiing at a very young age, Yinhua has always aspired to become a professional skier. But due to various reasons, she was not able to qualify to become a member of the skiing team for Urumqi in Urumqi, capital city of Xinjiang.

Yinhua was not beaten back by the failure, but instead she embarked on a journey towards training herself to become a full-on professional skier. To enhance her physical strength, Yinhua stuck to a routine of running in the early morning everyday, even on days when the temperature dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius, while watching guide videos in the evening to learn new skiing moves.

Despite having no standard ski tracks available, the young girl was able to turn the snow-covered land around her village into a competition venue. With the support of her family members, Yinhua finally excelled in the field of skiing.

Yinhua's perseverance and commitment to skiing has touched even world champions, with one expressing that she wants to be an instructor of Yinhua and another saying that young people like Yinhua are the future of China's sporting vanguard.

There are numerous touching stories about young people in China striving to pursue their winter sports dreams by constantly making painstaking efforts.

Photo shows Chinese snowboarder Zhang Jiahao during a competition. (Photo from the Chinese Communist Youth League Central Committee)

Chinese snowboarder Zhang Jiahao, who had been a baker, first took up snowboarding when he was 17 years old. In 2021, 26-year-old Zhang went to compete at events held during the National Championship in Chile in order to earn enough points to qualify for Beijing 2022.

Zhang is the first snowboarder in the country to be able to do a double backflip. During the competitive races held in Chile by the International Ski Federation in Sept. 2021, Zhang won a gold medal, a silver medal and two bronze medals.

However, due to some technical errors that occurred during competitions, Zhang was not able to qualify for Beijing 2022. Despite the failures he had encountered, the young man said his passion for skiing was not affected.

As the 2022 Winter Olympic Games are right around the corner, people in China are welcoming the Games with soaring enthusiasm. In Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, a 18-meter-high giant snowman can be seen standing on the bank of the Songhuajiang River, attracting flocks of citizens and tourists.

In Beijing's Yanqing district, a primary school has built an outdoor ice rink for its students. Liu Guifu, an official with the school, said that since 2016, the school launched a new curriculum arrangement in the winter season to guarantee that each student could engage in ice sports for at least one hour everyday.