Ice Skating on Hou Hai Lake & Autumn Beauty

Hou Hai Lake Area is a popular hangout zone, with trendy and upmarket Restaurants, Bars and Cafes sprouting up in that district. It is known as Bar street to the locals. Rather than just visiting the stylish establishments after dark! Join the locals and occasional furry creatures(dogs) on the lake.


It is a breeze to ice skate in a ring filled with man-made ice. However a frozen lake is a different story! The ice is too slippery and it was hard to find our centre of balance. In the end, we traded our skates for a chair skate instead! Skate bicycles are also available for rental.







The beauty of Hou Hai in Autumn






Bridal Couples = Mini Celebrities for the Day
Caught sight of tourists taking pictures of them and with them. I realised I am in the former category. I heard from someone from Philippines that if you take a picture together with a bridal couple, it will bring you good luck.






五颜六色的狗, 可爱还是丑, 让你决定 (A multi coloured dog, is it beautiful or ugly. It is for you to decide)

Jundushan Ski Resort

Would you relate skiing to Beijing? A lesser known fact about the Capital, is that it is surrounded by ski resorts. When the winter months draw by, the locals will head to one of the many ski resorts to practice this winter sport. I would consider skiing as a luxury, because we cannot ski in the Tropics! Adding on it is quite costly to ski in Europe, Canada, United States, Japan & Korea etc. Trust me skiing in China is a steal!

A list of ski resorts surrounding Beijing. Here's another site for you to check out.


Jundushan Ski Resort



We picked this resort as it is just 30km away from the city. We had a little misadventure at the ski resort due to our slight disobedience. There was a sign warning beginners not to get onto the ski lift. However curiosity got the better of us and we got on. To our horror, we found ourself at the top of the expert slope and there was no other way except to ski down! After deliberating for 1/2 an hour, we decided to take the plunge. And I bade farewell to the resort by leaving a "bum imprint" on the snow for the very last time! *Learning lesson - do not take the ski lift if you are just a novice.

Address: 588 Zhenshun Cun, Cuicun Zhen (5 km north of the Xiaotangshan Hot Spring Holiday Village), Changping District 昌平区崔村镇真顺村588号
Opening Hours: 8am-10pm daily
T: 6072 5888 (You might like to check if they provide shuttle services to and from the resort, that will save you the hassle of making your own way there. We managed to catch the shuttle service from the resort to a train station.)

Getting There

Option A) Take subway line 2 to Ji Shiu Tan. From exit A, walk east to the De Sheng Men bus station and take express bus 919 to Chang Ping then hire a taxi to the resort.

Option B) Take subway line 13 to Long Zi, exit and cross the road and hire a taxi to take you to the resort.


You might be interested in:
Yabuli Ski Resort (Harbin)

Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route

Each season brings a change of scenary along the course of the Route. Visitors are welcomed by pretty wild flowers and lush greenary during the Spring and Summer months. The hills are dotted with Golden and Red Hues as Autumn approaches and in Winter the landscape is covered with snow.


I read about the magnificient Snow Wall which forms an open air tunnel for the highland bus to pass through and decided to visit the route in Winter. It was an awesome experience and I will let the pictures speak for themselves. I highly recommend this site as a must visit spot in Japan in Winter. BTW it is possible to get there on your own so scroll down to find out how I managed to do it and how you can do it! The ticket cost is approx ¥10,560.

Snapshots along the course of getting to the route



















mini snow wall




























Getting There:
I boarded the JR line from JR Tokyo Station, took the Shinkansen to JR Echigoyuzawa Station and took a train to JR Toyama Station. (approx 3h 15mins)
At JR Toyama Station, pls buy the ticket for the Alpine Route, which includes all the transportation along the course of the route.
From JR Toyama Station, please walk ove to Dentetsu Toyama Station and board the local train which will take you to Tateyama Eki(station). This is the start of the Alpine Route.

Getting Back:
From JR Shinano Ohmachi Station I took the JR Oito Line (58mins) to JR Matsumoto Station and the Ltd Express Azusa back to JR Shinjuku Station (166mins)

Some Tips:
Pls click here for more information on Ticket Booths and Costs
1) The route only opens on certain months, therefore please check the business period of the route. It usually opens from Late April to End November.
2) If you plan to get to the route using the JR Line. Please remember that the start point(JR Toyama Station) of the route will be different from the end point(JR Shinano Omachi). If you are staying near Nagoya, you might want to start from JR Shinano Omachi instead and end at JR Toyama Station. As the route is very crowded, therefore, please remember to book your bullet train tickets in advance. Remember to book your bullet train tickets to/from different start and end points. 3)
3) Pls give yourself 7-8 hours the complete the course of the route, as well as around 3.1/2-4 hours transportation time to and from the route.
4) Do buy the JR Pass as it helps to save some transportation money, as you will need to travel along the JR lines.