81 runs, 15 lifts: Beidahu starts its season before the 2027 Universiade

The Beidahu Asian Games Village hotel at the foot of the slopes, December 2008. Photo: Jarek via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin, northeast China, opened its 2026-27 season with trial skiing on Saturday 7 November 2026. The resort now has 81 runs and 15 lifts, including a new lift to the top of Nanlou Mountain. From 15 to 25 January 2027, Beidahu hosts the alpine and freestyle races of the Changchun Winter Universiade.

• Trial skiing on one beginner run since Saturday 7 November; the full opening is expected in mid-November.
• 81 runs and 15 lifts this season, 7 of them new runs; lift capacity of up to 35,000 people per hour.
• The new A lift goes to the top of Nanlou Mountain; the UU chairlift is now a cabin lift.
• 7 race runs for the 2027 Winter Universiade, with 25 events in alpine skiing and freestyle.
• The resort stays open to the public during the Games.

The trial started on 7 November, the day of Lidong, the traditional "start of winter" in the Chinese calendar. Only one run was open: Starlight Avenue, a beginner run served by the E lift, from 10:30 to 15:30. The local news site Cailian News, published through The Paper, reported that more than 350 snowmaking machines made the run overnight, in a window of low temperatures. The rest of the area stays closed until the full opening, which the resort expects in mid-November, with more runs, night skiing and a terrain park.

China News Service (CNS), the state news agency, reported queues at the lift station on the first day. Chen Zui, a skier from Shenyang, told the agency: "Every year I come to the trial with my partner. It is only seven months since the last season closed, but we already felt we had waited too long."

The resort gives these figures for 2026-27, as reported by CNS and confirmed by the Jilin government channel on The Paper:

The A lift is the main change for good skiers, because it shortens the trip to the highest terrain. The new UU cabins give shelter from the wind and carry more people than the old chairs. The Jilin government channel says that Beidahu has had the most skier visits of any Chinese resort for six seasons in a row. CNS reports that Beidahu and the nearby Songhua Lake resort each had more than one million visits last season.

The 33rd Winter World University Games take place from 15 to 25 January 2027, with a main zone in Changchun and a second zone in Jilin City. Beidahu has 7 race runs for 25 events in alpine skiing and freestyle, according to the Jilin government channel; CNS adds snowboard to the list. The race runs are open to the public before and after the races, so recreational skiers can ski the same slopes as the athletes.

On 10 November, Huang Xiaoxing, director of the culture, tourism and sports bureau of the Jilin City ice-and-snow zone, told CNS that the earthworks for the big air, the halfpipe, the slopestyle course and the alpine runs are complete. The A-nets, the high safety nets along the race runs, are to be ready before 15 November. Snowmaking on the race venues starts on 20 November. During the Games, only the race areas close, and only during the races; the other runs stay open.

Beidahu is not the only resort in the province that is starting up. The Jilin government channel lists these dates and adds that the weather can still change them.

At Songhua Lake, a new western area with 300,000 m² of runs, a new six-seat high-speed lift and 5 magic carpets opens this season; the deputy general manager told CNS that the lift, the carpets and a new service centre are to be complete at the end of November. The resort then has 2.4 million m² of ski area and 7 imported high-speed lifts.

The first weeks in Jilin are on machine-made snow on groomed runs: hard, fast and sometimes icy in the morning cold. That is carving terrain. A ski with a waist of 70–80 mm and a turn radius of about 12–14 m holds an edge on hard snow and is easy to turn on a busy beginner or intermediate run. The race runs ask for more: a stiff slalom or giant slalom ski is for trained skiers only.

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