Connect with us

Global Banking and Finance Review is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website. .

Top Stories

On a frozen pond far from the Olympics, meet China’s ice hockey veterans

2022 01 20T003518Z 1 LYNXMPEI0J01P RTROPTP 4 OLYMPICS 2022 CHINA ANSHANHOCKEY - Global Banking | Finance

By Ryan Woo and Tingshu Wang

ANSHAN, China (Reuters) – “Today … the first game in the Winter Olympics … begins!”

The shout rings through a coterie of onlookers by a frozen pond as 12 men, in helmets and other hockey gear, take position on a makeshift rink under a pale sun and sapphire sky.

On the unscripted prompt, the referee drops the puck onto the grey, marbled ice and hurries to one side. A hunched-over forward slaps it towards his right-winger, who, alas, misses the pass, a blunder quickly exploited by opponents.

The men, amateur players in the rust-belt city of Anshan in northeast China, are mostly in their 50s and 60s, their passion for the sport in sharp contrast to wider indifference.

(Open https://reut.rs/3tGlGH5 to see a picture package)

The lack of interest is aggravated by the unremarkable men’s hockey team that is to compete for China in the Beijing Games next month. No one is expecting a “Miracle on Ice” moment like at the 1980 Winter Olympics, when a group of college amateurs beat the traditionally dominant Soviets.

The Chinese team, ranked No. 32 globally, was allowed to play at the Beijing Games by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) only after lengthy deliberation over its relative proficiency.

For the Anshan players, though, hockey has never been about smashing Olympic records or playing in an elite league.

Many have been friends for more than three decades. They come from all walks of life. Some are blue-collar workers, a few are civil servants, one is a police officer, others are retirees, like the boss of the league, Chu Cequn.

“They enjoy coming together to play,” said Chu, 70, who stopped playing three years ago but still occasionally referees.

“And we enjoy duelling with equally ‘old’ teams from the nearby cities of Liaoyang, Shenyang and Dalian,” he said.

Chu has organised pond hockey games for a long time, outlasting institutional support given by state-owned “iron rice bowl” enterprises in the region as northeast China’s heavy industry went from boom to bust.

China has no professional league, and Chu’s favourite team is the Pittsburgh Penguins of North America’s National Hockey League (NHL), the world’s premier ice hockey league.

But no NHL players will be competing at the Beijing Olympics due to COVID-19 concerns.

Still, Chu hopes to be there to watch the Games with his 10-year-old grandson if tickets are available.

LORDS OF THE RINK

With no operating indoor rinks in Anshan, the league claims public spaces for their sport, playing on frozen ponds and lakes in city parks.

“I’ve all the measurements in my head as we set up the rink,” said Chu, who started playing at age 30 when he enrolled in a university in 1980 after the Cultural Revolution.

“We begin by determining the centre-point of the rink. After that, we board up the perimeter with a total of 80 wooden boards, each either 1.8 metres or 2.4 metres long,” he said.

Once the rink is in place, team members take turns scraping its surface each day to rid it of impurities and dirt.

The surface then needs to be flooded with water pulled from the pond by a generator pump. The weather, at minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit), does the rest.

“We don’t have an indoor place, so we just play for 50-60 days outside, every year,” said Li Bingru, 68, who plays both defence and winger.

“When on the ice, I feel 20 years younger.”

(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Tingshu Wang; Editing by Tom Hogue)

Global Banking & Finance Review

 

Why waste money on news and opinions when you can access them for free?

Take advantage of our newsletter subscription and stay informed on the go!


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Global Banking & Finance Review │ Banking │ Finance │ Technology. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Recent Post