Maybe...but learning to walk is not so easy (not that I remember), but I do remember learning to ski in my 30s...the biggest fun was how much my wife laughed!

The more practical issue is at what age the ski school is willing to take on a child pupil -- in the US, they usually refuse until 3 yrs of age. I don't feel competent teaching my daughter myself.

Can't help here: am clueless myself. Was happy to find one of the nearby resorts, which looks tiny, has a shuttle bus from wudaokou, so we'll probably check that out sometime. The slopes look 'gentle undualting', even though they are meant to be alpine pistes!

tb

I would think that the determining factor is whether or not they have boots to fit the child. If the boots fit, then there will be skis or a snowboard accepting.

Never heard of children at a year and a half learning to ski or snowboard
that absurd.

Well, there are children smoking by that age so you never know. :D

That's true, I saw some toddlers lighting up.

Watching a 5 year old trying the Jack sample at Carrefour was one of my more shocking experiences in China! :eek:

I don't come on to this forum much but bump into this thread while researching for our ski holiday in Niseko this coming Christmas.
We just returned from Clubmed Yabuli , spent the Christmas week there and would recommend it to anyone hoping to get a starter lesson for their kids. While the property may not be a 5 star resort, it is adequate and our family of 4 had a good ski trip. The GOs are very patient with the kids and they have morning and afternoon ski and snowboard lessons for children at the kid's club.We parents could go on our own ski/ snowboard activities while the kids learn their skills at the "kids' ring". My daughter, aged 11, actually prefer the compact, hard snow in Yabuli to the powdery type in Hokkaido; maybe the harder snow is easier for beginners?

Thanks for the review. Can you compare Yabuli to any US or other international resort? Difficulty? Snow? Mostly manmade/natural? Temps? How busy? Who else was skiing (from what country)?

Snowboard? There is only one board. How does the snowboarder move from place?

More of a phenomenon than routine.

ONE YEAR OLD SNOWBOARDING

mnredfox,
I can't comment, really, as I do not ski; where I come from, there is no snow and snow activities are not a common sport. However, we went on a chartered flight and there were two families who were experienced skiiers and according to them, this place is a poor cousin of the other French villages. You may want to go onto Tripadvisor to see what others have to say.

It was just the beginning of the snow season when we were there ( end of Dec) and according to the hotel staff, most of the snow in the kid's area were still manmade while the rest was real.

Temp average -20 deg Celsius; extremely windy and on some afternoons (mostly after 2 pm), the gondolas would be closed due to stormy weather. The resort shares the facilities with another local resort called the Snowmountain and even so, there were very few skiiers and even less snowboarders when we were there; it was especially empty in the early mornings and the place rarely fills up before 10am.

Like I've mentioned before, the snow was very very compact. (Sorry, that's the best I could do, you would have gotten more out of me if your question was about the room amenities/ service etc...)

Who else was skiing? hmm, does it really matter who you bump into during a fall? Let me see, mostly local Chinese new to the game on the lower levels, then, as one goes up the mountain, it is mostly Hongkong Chinese and Singaporeans, a few Indians, Indonesians and Malays.

Entertained a couple Taiwanese girls to take a tram ride at Palm Springs, seems first time they ever experienced a snow fall. Not too eventful.. but OK for business.

OK, I've just queried my better half (who skis) on how Yabuli compares to other international snow villages; well, apparently, the 'good' runs are closed off to the public,that means us, the paying resort guests;and are only accessible to their athletes in the National team.

Jumped the ropes and skied the best powder runs in the Rocky Mountains.
Closed means...go for it.

UCB fat lines and a trail of smoke. Chinese can't never touch bustin a mountain like that.

Would love to experience the Chinese eclipsing Franz Klammer Innsbruck 1976.

Zhongguo Jiayou!