SKATING AT ANY AGE

Photo is of 1-1/2 year old Nikita Petrov with Mom Chen Lu and dad Denis Petrov (both are Olympic medalists and world champions who head our school at our Shenzhen World Ice Arena).

When you think of all the action sports where accidents could and often do occur, ice skating ranks toward the bottom of the list. Because of the unusual nature of skating it would get media coverage whereas broken bones on a football field would go unnoticed. The accident rate at ice rinks is a tiny fraction of 1 percent as compared to other popular sports including football, swimming, diving, tennis, etc. As this is a new sport for Hangzhou we are highly recommending you invest in lessons. They are fun, challenging, and will get you skating around the ice in no time at all. How young can they start? Lets say age is not the factor, its if the child is walking alone comfortably for at least a year, then they can learn to skate. Our youngest in Shenzhen is 1-1/2 years and our oldest is a man age 82. Safety equipment for beginners should include a soft headband (sweatband) or a good fitting helmet. Gloves, knee, elbow and wrist guards...the same kind you would wear for roller blading and is available everywhere. Children under age 13 are required to wear gloves at all times. All skaters will be checked for proper lacing before they go onto the ice so read the instructions or ask for help.

THE MIXC SHOPPING MALLS AND ICE ARENAS

China Resources Land based in Hong Kong and Sun Hung Kai (Hong Kong) are joint venture partners in the Hangzhou MIXC mall, residential, hotel and office building project now underway.

The original MIXc shopping mall (owned and operated by China Resources Land) is located in the Luohu district (Shennan Rd and Baoan Nan Rd) in Shenzhen. It opened on Jan 1, 2005 and is today the premier shopping mall not only in Shenzhen but all of China. The concept of the MIXc is included in a larger complex called Citycrossing which includes a grade A office tower, a new Grand Hyatt Shenzhen Hotel, the luxury Park Lane apartments and the two largest Gucci and Louis Vuitton's stores in Asia. With more than 40 food and restaurant outlets in the mall and a 12 screen luxury cinema, a visit to Shenzhen isn't complete without a stop here. Our second MIXc will be in Hangzhou followed shortly after by Shenyang, then Chengdu and Nanning (these last 3 projects owned entirely CR Land only). All of the malls have Olympic size ice rinks except for Chengdu which is slightly smaller due to space limitations.

AND NOW, A LITTLE HISTORY LESSON. SONJA HENIE

Believe it or not, one woman was almost totally responsible for figure skating as we know it today. Her name was Sonja Henie from Oslo, Norway. She was 10 times world Champion and 3 times Olympic gold medalist. She came to Hollywood and made numerous highly successful movies and amassed a fortune in the 1930's and 40's making her the world's richest woman, and all because of skating. She was known to be a tough business woman and demanded to be paid in cash for all performances. She collected diamonds and jewels as well as famous works of art. She had her own touring ice show that travelled the world. She died in 1967 of leukemia while on a flight from Paris to Oslo in her private jet. She left behind an enormous art museum in Oslo called the Henie Onstad Art Center. She was the first woman to wear a short skirt on the ice, the first to wear white ice skates as well and was the first woman to do a jump while in competition. In 2002, Ted Wilson of this new HZ project, donated one of Sonja's dresses, used in the movie, "It's a Pleasure", to the museum in Norway where it's now on permanent display. Google Sonja Henie for more information.

WERE DO ICE SKATES COME FROM?

It's interesting to note that the majority of the ice skates produced in the world actually come from right here in China.

Major boot makers such as Jackson (Canada), Riedell (USA) both produce rental skates and entry level skates in factories in southern China. These boots are made to Canadian and USA Standards and are of the highest quality. If you're after competition level boots and blades, the finest boots come from San Francisco (both Harlick and SP Teri are based there and they serve the majority of the world's best skaters. Kneble in Canada also makes competition level boots but their market is primarily Canadian skaters.

There are a few other boot makes in Austria and even in Australia that also serve this exclusive market. As for blades, well all of the MK and Wilson blades come from England where they've made skate blades for more than 100 years. Wilson even made blades for the boots worn by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. These old skates are now kept in a bank vault and are brought out only on special occasions. The Jackson-Ultima company of Canada also produces beautiful figure skating blades that are made in Taiwan.

The World Ice Arena Hangzhou will supply just about any kind of skate you might need but in some cases we might have to order directly from the manufacturer. We specialize in figure skating equipment but can also get most hockey and speed skates as well.

As a matter of curiosity, there are 2 other sports which use ice rinks but without ice skates. One is Broomball (highly popular in the USA) and Curling (an Olympic sport popular in Europe and Canada and now even in northern China).