Urumqi, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Hemu Village, named "China's most beautiful village" by National Geographic, is located in Burjin County, the northernmost part of Xinjiang, close to the border between Mongolia and Russia. However, Ye Lina, a local Kazakh homestay owner, said that winter is the most active time in Hemu Village, and despite the ice and snow, young people from all over the country have brought the ancient village a youthful atmosphere. It is the Jikepulin International Ski Resort, which officially opened in 2022, that attracts young people here.
The summit platform of Hemujikpulin Ski Resort is 2,800 meters above sea level. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Gu Xun In mid-December, more than 20 homestay rooms operated by Ye Lina began to be fully booked, and this popularity continued until April of the following year, that is, the end of the snow season. She told reporters that the former Hemu was quiet and deserted in winter, and the temperature of minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius made people afraid to go out, and there were few tourists from other places. Since the snow-capped mountains less than 10 kilometers away from the village have been turned into ski resorts, winter in Hemu Village has changed.
Since the evening, the barbecue stall on the side of the village road has been put up. At the riverside café, there are always pretty girls taking pictures by the windowsill at sunset, dressed in snow suits and wearing snow goggles on their velvet hats – almost the standard for snow season photos. The bars in the village are open until three or four o'clock in the morning, just like in the big cities, and there is no shortage of brave outsiders who dare to "compete for jobs" with Xinjiang people who can sing and dance.
Night view of Hemu Village. Photo provided by the interviewee Huang Zhengyang, a 32-year-old senior skier friend from Chongqing, spoke highly of Jikepulin Snow Resort: "The slope, terrain, and snowfall here are very attractive to high-level players, and in my eyes, this is the 'ceiling' of domestic ski resorts." Since 2019, Huang Zhengyang has come to Hemu every snow season, and before the ski resort was built, he rode a horse uphill with a snowboard on his back, and he witnessed the process of Jikepulin Snow Resort from scratch to becoming an instant hit. This season, he plans to ski in Hemu for 5 months, focusing on the improvement of the freestyle skiing level in the whole mountain.
Chongqing snow friend Huang Zhengyang skiing in Hemu. Photo provided by the interviewee 29-year-old Qin Haodong is a novice skier, although he has not yet experienced the joy of skiing the mountain, but the fairytale scenery of Hemu Village and the free-spirited atmosphere of the snow season still make him stay here. He drove from Jiangxi to Hemu in early November and found a job as a resident singer in a restaurant. "I saw a lot of scenery, and I think it's the people who are more interesting. Qin Haodong said that he likes to deal with and make friends with skiers, "People who come here to ski have 'paused' their original lives, but they have their own stories with them."
Qin Haodong, a snow friend from Jiangxi, works as a resident singer in a restaurant in Hemu Village. Photo provided by the interviewee Hemu attracts not only foreign skiers, but also locals who smell business opportunities. Ma Jie, a 24-year-old Hui boy from Jinghe County, Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, quit his job at a state-owned enterprise in his hometown this summer to work in the tourism industry in Hemu, more than 900 kilometers away. "After the construction of the ski resort last year, the demand for tourist cars in Hemu in winter has increased. He now mainly provides charter services for skiers to pick up and drop off the airport and to and from the ski resort, getting up at 8:30 in the morning and finishing work until 10 o'clock in the evening. With the goal of earning money to buy a house and get married, Ma Jie said that although it was hard, he was very busy. The peak of passenger flow on New Year's Day and Spring Festival is coming, and Ma Jie is looking forward to this snow season.