YINCHUAN－Since the winter vacation started, a frozen fishing pond in Pingluo county of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region has been full of cheers and laughter between 10 am and 1 pm.
Though the icy surface is not quite standard, and some surfaces are uneven, more than 70 boys and girls, aged from 5 to 16, still enjoyed the short-track speed skating, many probably imagining themselves competing on the biggest stage of all for Olympic gold.
"For the past four years, at this time, we have opened a winter camp for short-track speed skating. The Beijing Winter Olympics is on and the children are so excited," says Li Xu, a coach with the Chunya Winter Sports Club of Pingluo.
Su Rujia, 12, is one of them. About two years ago, the girl saw Li and a group of students roller-skating in a square. She immediately fell in love with the sport and started to learn it.
Li is a PE teacher at a local primary school. At first, he just wanted to open a roller-skating class for his students, so that they could relax with the sport after school. Later, in order to help promote winter sports among Chinese youth, he began to teach short-track speed skating.
Rujia still remembers the first time she put on the skates, she was unsteady on the blades and dared not to try to take a step forward.
"About 10 days later, I managed to learn how to skate and I felt like I was so free," she says.
As an underdeveloped county with fewer than 300,000 residents, there's no ice rink in Pingluo. These children can only practice skating in winter or go to Yinchuan, the capital city of Ningxia.
Rujia didn't want to miss this winter camp, even though she's about to start junior middle school. "I can spare some time for skating thanks to my high efficiency in getting my homework done," she told her mom.
The fishing pond is four to five kilometers away from Rujia's home and her mom had to take her there by electric motorcycle.
"It's really cold, but worth it. It feels so cool to skate on the ice," says Rujia.
According to Li, every day, after warmup exercises, the children will put on skates and then practice how to skate, how to negotiate turns, and cross the line.
The whole process is very exhausting, especially at the beginning. Sometimes, after training, Rujia didn't want to move at all, and even thought about quitting. However, the joy that skating brings her stiffened her resolve to continue.
"In the past two years, I have met many friends, which is much more fun than staying at home alone, and now I hardly feel the cold," she says.
Li currently has over 100 students and he is so pleased to see the children have grown taller, become more sensible and skate better.
"Sports are good for kids to develop strength and a hardworking spirit－knowing that practice makes perfect－which will also be beneficial to their study," he says.
The local sports authorities have provided much support throughout the years. They have encouraged the students to participate in competitions at all levels and also invited world champions to give them instruction.
Some children have been admitted to better junior middle schools with this specialty, and others have been recommended to Beijing for more professional training, says Li.
"Skating gives kids the feeling of flying. The more children skate, the more they like it," he says.
Those students who practice skating are more interested in the Beijing Winter Olympics than their peers. They watched the World Cup Short Track Speed Skating series and admired their idols, Olympic champion Wu Dajing and silver medalist Ren Ziwei.
"I hardly have vacations or weekends these days. I am definitely tired, but a person should stick to something in life. Making children healthy and happy is really a great honor for me," Li says.
Xinhua