Live Bar February 6, 2019 The Altay region in northern Xinjiang is known as the "origin of human skiing", and the petroglyphs excavated here from 12,000 years ago vividly record the earliest images of human skiing. The unique advantages of "long snow season", "excellent snow quality", "sufficient snow", "wide snow" and "less wind" make Altay a paradise for ice and snow sports enthusiasts. At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics on the 4th, among the two post-00 Chinese athletes who "lit" the main torch included Diniger Yilamujiang, a Uighur girl from the "origin of human skiing". The Global Times reporter recently went to the Altay region of Xinjiang to conduct in-depth investigation and interview, witnessing the vigorous development of ice and snow sports and related industries in Xinjiang.
Painted petroglyphs documenting the "living fossils" of skiing
At the check-in counter at Urumqi Diwopu Airport, the spectacular sight of checking in snowboards forms a unique landscape. These people range in age, from children of four or five years to people in their sixties; there are "snow friends" of all levels, and there are athletes of professional teams who share the same destination - Altay. A "snow friend" from Guangdong told the Global Times reporter that he went to Altay for the first time, just to see the true face of the "origin of human skiing".
The name "The Origin of Human Skiing" is by no means a self-proclaimed name. In the Khandgat Mongol Township, about an hour's drive from downtown Altay, reporters saw painted petroglyphs in the Dundebulak Cave. A row of small people on the rock wall is clearly visible, and their feet on fur skis, holding poles, bending over and bending their knees, carrying their prey in the wind and snow, are in the same posture as modern skiing. Relevant studies at home and abroad show that the date of this petroglyph is 12,000 years or even earlier.
Dundebrak rock painting "guardian" Zhang Yongjun said in an interview with the Global Times reporter that the Altay region has a cold winter climate and a large amount of snowfall, in order to facilitate travel and hunting in the mountain forest, the ancestors living in Altay invented fur skis, and the petroglyphs truly restored the scene of ski hunting in that year, becoming the earliest living fossil to record the appearance of human skiing. "Petroglyphs were drawn more than 4,000 years earlier than Western records, and this figure is difficult to break." Zhang Yongjun told the Global Times reporter that before the epidemic, experts and scholars from Europe, The United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and other countries came to investigate, and after seeing the rock paintings, they successively issued "YES" and "YES" exclamations, and recognized the statement that "Altay is the origin of human skiing". In 2006, senior experts and scholars at home and abroad jointly issued the "Altay Declaration", which officially declared Altay in Xinjiang, China as the "Origin of Human Skiing", and set January 16 of each year as the "Anniversary of the Origin of Human Skiing".
Time travels, and the fur skis invented by the ancestors of Altay have not withdrawn from the stage of history. They appear in furboarding events and continue to play a role in the daily travel of locals. On the outskirts of Altay, a global times reporter met with the elderly Sribek Shahesh, the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of fur skis. The "Sribuk Wood Products Shop" he runs is filled with fur skis of various sizes, and some are made into miniature versions of souvenirs.
The Global Times reporter personally experienced a fur ski and could not help but marvel at the wisdom of the ancestors of Altay. Unlike modern skiing, fur skiing requires only one pole. According to the old man of Slanbek, this design is to facilitate hunting while skiing.
From Altay to the Beijing Winter Olympics
The ice and snow gene is deeply rooted in the bones of the people of the Altay region. Diniger Yilamujiang, a 20-year-old Uighur girl born in The Altay region of Xinjiang, China, "lit" the main torch with another post-00 Chinese athlete, Zhao Jiawen, at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics on the 4th. Diniger Yilamujiang, from the "origin of human skiing", has started her dream of the Winter Olympics, and she will represent the Chinese cross-country skiing team in this Winter Olympics.
The love of ice and snow sports is also reflected in the desire to bloom silver flowers. When the Global Times reporter met 13-year-old Tuvan girl Yinhua in the Altay region, she was practicing alone on the Jikprin Ski Resort in Hemu Village, and only ate the chocolate she brought with her for lunch. Influenced by his uncle, Yinhua has loved skiing since childhood and dreams of representing the Chinese team in the Olympic Games one day, training hard day after day. Although Yinhua lost in a professional team selection not long ago, world champions Yang Yang, Guo Dandan, Deng Yaping and others successively sent encouragement to Yinhua, saying that she "can look forward to the future".
The dream of the people of the Altay region for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was also realized by 16 domestic technical officials elected by the region for alpine skiing, including Xinjiang's first winter champion, Yelzati. In an interview with the Global Times reporter, Yelzati said that Altay has natural advantages such as "long snow season", "excellent snow quality", "sufficient snow", "wide snow", "less wind", etc. His father began to teach students to ski in the 1960s, and most of the family members were professional skiers.
"Golden Snow Line" ice and snow heat
Altay means "golden mountain" in Mongolian, and has been rich in gold resources since ancient times. In recent years, Altay is widely known for its location in the "Golden Snow Line" at 45 degrees north latitude and the title of "Snow Capital of China", and has gradually become a paradise for ski lovers around the world.
This year's Spring Festival coincided with the Beijing Winter Olympics, and ski enthusiasts from all over the country gathered in Altay to set off an ice and snow boom. Located just 1.6 km from the city centre, the Altay General Mountain Ski Resort is the only alpine ski resort in the country connected to the city, and the surrounding hotels have long been "full". To the surprise of the Global Times reporter, the popularity of the ice and snow boom spread to Hemu Village in Burjin County in the Altay region. The Jikprin Ski Resort, which only opened at the end of December last year, is now a paradise for powder snow lovers. There are long queues at the cash register, lounges, and cable cars, and ski rentals are quickly sold out... Keep in mind that there is no public transport to reach the Jikprin Ski Resort, and you must rent or drive yourself from downtown Altay and drive for 5 hours on the winding roads covered in snow and ice. A group of snow friends from Guizhou told the Global Times reporter that the skiing experience in Altay is "super" and they are ready to "skate a winter vacation" here.
The "China Ice and Snow Tourism Development Report 2022" released a few days ago shows that under the background of normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the three regions of Northeast China, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Xinjiang have reconstructed the new pattern of Ice and Snow Tourism in China.
(Beijing Daily)