Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Ren Jiang) news: Every day at 10 a.m., Ayitbek Baheti puts on the green ski instructor's suit, walks back and forth between the ski gear hall and ski runs at the Jiangjunshan International Ski Resort in Altay City, northwest China’s Xinjiang, to see if anyone needs ski instructions.

Ayitbek is a ski instructor at the Jiangjunshan International Ski Resort in Altay. He just became a ski instructor for the 2022-2023 season, but has enjoyed skiing for many years.

Photo shows Ayitbek Baheti gives instructions to skiers. (Photo provided by Ayitbek Baheti)

Ayitbek was born in Habahe County of Altay Prefecture, northwest China’s Xinjiang. The winter there is long and cold, and the snowpack lasts for more than half a year. Since he was a child, he has loved skiing, but at that time, skiing was completely different from nowadays. The villagers used homemade fur skis, which were already very “luxurious”. The dream of Ayitbek as a child was to have a pair of his own fur skis, more often than not, he could only slide in a snow sled, either simply slid on the snow with wooden boards strapped to his feet.

When he was 15 or 16, he learned to ski double-board at the winter pasture and instantly fell in love with it, and that was when he really started skiing. “Now, I have finally become a ski instructor.” He is sincerely happy because it has been his dream for many years, “Skiing has changed my life.” For more than ten years, skiing has changed from his hobby to his profession, and his love for it has never diminished. In order to facilitate skiing, Ayitbek often came from Habahe County to the Jiangjunshan International Ski Resort in Altay, which is more than 100 kilometers away. In recent years, there have been more and more people skiing. He is increasingly eager to become a member of the ice and snow industry, and being a ski instructor is the first step.

Two years ago, Ayitbek got married, and he moved his family to Altay City. It was also from then that he started to learn snowboarding, and because of the increasing number of snowboarding learners, he was also bent on becoming a ski instructor, so he made rapid progress.

The difference between the profession and hobby of skiing is very significant, and now, Ayitbek is gradually adapting to the change. He can tell if a skier needs instructions by whether he brings his own snowboard or not, and can convince a beginner to take ski lessons through a simple but enthusiastic conversation. Looking at those newbies who learned to ski after a few lessons, he has a sense of accomplishment, “through my teaching, many people learned to ski and know how to avoid the danger.” Sometimes he is especially happy when skiers he has taught before contact him and wish to take a few more lessons with him.

To become a ski instructor, one has to go through formal training and get a qualification. The Jiangjunshan International Ski Resort in Altay, where Ayitbek is based, has a ski academy with a full set of syllabus, and the content taught by ski instructors has to be in accordance with the syllabus. Now, there are more than 100 ski instructors, who come from all over the country, and some of them have been engaged as ski instructors for many years. Ayitbek has learned a lot from them.

Photo shows Ayitbek Baheti gives instructions to skiers. (Photo provided by Ayitbek Baheti)

Once he has become a ski instructor, he has very little time to ski on his own. Sometimes he has to teach several lessons a day, and his schedule is full, so he has less time to enjoy skiing, but his income is very substantial. In the past few months, his monthly income was around 20,000 yuan, which was previously undreamed of.

But this is not the end of his skiing career in his mind. Now, he is planning to open his own homestay, and being a ski instructor is a breakthrough. These skiers may be the potential consumer groups of his homestay in the future, “I can introduce them to my homestay, and I can also combine the homestay with skiing.”

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