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The new year is only a few days old and a skier knows, what that means: It’s Vasaloppet China 2024 time! On January 4th the biggest Chinese skiing event is going to open the Worldloppet winter.

The Jingyuetan Park in Changchun China is covered in white and the tracks of Vasaloppet China are perfectly in shape. Even though there are no masses of natural snow, the organizers have no problem to prepare the tracks: Due to the constantly cold temperatures there was enough time to produce a lot of artificial snow.

This artificial snow is not only needed to guarantee well prepared tracks for the 50 km classic style race, but also for the astonishing snow sculptures in the start and finish area. As every year, 5 to 15 Meter high snow sculptures can be seen around the start and finish. The artists are working on them already for weeks.

For the 22nd year in a row skiers will line up on Thursday, 4 January for Vasaloppet China in the city of Changchun, roughly 950 kilometres northeast of Beijing. The race will be held at the large Jingyuetan Park, as it has been since 2003, year of the inaugural edition of the classic event that has contributed a lot to the development of the XC skiing scene in China. 

The event features 50km, 25km and 2,5km races and is part of the Worldloppet calendar since 2014. Only the classic skiing technique is permitted, following the tradition of Vasaloppet in Sweden, the famous classic style event every year in March. The Chinese ‘sister event’ is indeed held in cooperation with Vasaloppet. 

The start list shows participants from 26 countries including China, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, USA, Japan and Kazakhstan. Among the race favourites are Thomas Bing (GER) and Fabian Stocek (CZE) in the men’s 50k category, while Anja Andersdotter (SWE) and Mariya Lyuft (KAZ) are considered potential winners in the women’s. However, Vasaloppet China has always been a race in which new young Chinese talents emerge, so we might as well celebrate a home victory on Thursday. 

The 50km race consists of a 25km loop through the park that needs to be done twice. The first part of the course is quite hilly, while the second is basically flat to the finish. The mass start is scheduled for 10am local time on Thursday. Skiers will be happy to see a weather forecast with relatively mild temperatures (zero degrees) for the location, but gusts of wind may play a role for the competition at the front.