Snowboarding

I have found a few people here that like to keep busy. This past weekend we went skiing in the mountains just north of Beijing. We joined a group of about 40 Chinese students and bussed our way about 2 hours north of the city. The Chinese students sang karaoke the entire trip there and back. They just kept singing the same 10 songs the whole time, by the end I was at least humming along. Every now and then a song would throw in a "Yeah, Yeah, Baby".

We got there at about 10 am and pushed our way through the lines and onto the slopes. I rented a stylish green snow suit. I really only wanted the pants, it was about 50 degrees out and the shirt came off for a couple runs. Five of us snowboarded while two others skied. We were easily the best people there. I think Chinese people like to take dramatic falls. They aim straight for the bottom of the hill and about 5 seconds later a ski and pole explosion occurs. It was pretty humorous watching this. The mountain was pretty easy, but the ice kept us on our toes... literally. We mastered the same run each time and there were no lines to this lift, because no one there was good enough for that hill. All of us met at 4 and loaded up the bus. This trip cost me a total of about 200 yuan or about $25. There is also supposedly an indoor ski place in Beijing that we are looking to try. I have uploaded a few more pictures that can be seen at the following link.http://www.flickr.com/photos/85224480@N00/