A NATURAL ATTRACTION

Is there a place where tourists can feast their eyes on the colors of the season? A place where autumn foliage is ablaze in the vibrant colors of amber, auburn and crimson and a frozen winter world coated in white beckons the traveler.

Yes, and I've been to such a place in early October.

It's Keketuohai in Altay prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The Keketuohai International Ski Resort to be exact. It opened to the public on Oct 1, becoming the country's first ski resort to kick off its new ski season this year.

The resort is located perfectly on a natural hillside.

At the foot of the mountains, I could see leaves, from incandescent red to lightning gold, tinge the land and cows leisurely graze near a stretch of white birch forest.

As our car slowly climbed up the hill, the smell of winter invaded the air. It began to snow heavily. We had to drive slowly to avoid going skidding off the road.

The resort's location has already become a world of ice and snow.

Ski lovers and snowboarding enthusiasts from across the country swamped the resort's newly built 4,300-square-meter ski equipment hall. There, a group of young people wearing stylish snowboard suits exchanged banter and frequently burst into merry laughter. They looked so perky, which attracted me to strike up a conversation with them.

Among them, Yang Junjie and his peers were mainly from a high school in the downtown area of Altay, about 300 km away from Keketuohai. They came to spend their National Day holiday enjoying the addictive thrill of sliding down the snowy slopes in the ski resort.

Yang, 17, started to learn snowboarding two years ago.

"I watched some video clips of riders' doing snowboard tricks. I wanted to be as cool as they are," he recalled.

After learning the sport for just a month, he came third in a local snowboarding competition held for juveniles.

He has athletic talent. But more importantly, the young man seems to be fearless, full of vim and sometimes a bit impulsive, which enables him to make unremitting efforts when practicing difficult, advanced maneuvers.

The snowboard rider would practice again and again how to pull up a jump from a high platform, do a backflip in the air and then land softly on the powdery snow to keep sliding down. For him, falling to the ground is part of snowboarder's everyday life.

"Falling over is no big deal for me. I'm young and fit," he said in a carefree manner.

"And I've learned how to fall while keeping injuries to a minimum," he added.

As a high school junior, he's eager to enter Harbin Sport University to further learn the theories and techniques of snowboarding.

"I used to be a troublemaker in other people's eyes. After I picked up snowboarding, I no longer felt confused and decided to engage myself in the sport for a future career," he said.

In contrast, Wang Haofei, 18, a schoolmate of Yang, regards it as a lifelong hobby that allows him to have fun and make more friends.

Wang took up snowboarding last year and was sponsored by a snowboard brand. That gives him the free entry to Jiangjunshan Ski Resort in Altay and 2,000 yuan ($314) of sponsorship money every month.

Before his junior year in high school, he would often go to the Jiangjunshan Ski Resort to practice snowboarding techniques after school.

"The ski resort was tranquil under the curtain of night. When riding and carving turns on my snowboard, I felt free and jolly," he said.

During that day, I followed him as he slid down from the mountains in the Keketuohai International Ski Resort and found that he's really a kind of social butterfly.

He frequently gesticulated to greet skiers or snowboarders zipping past us on the slope.

"They are all my friends," he told me.

I was amazed by that he has so many friends here whom he can quickly recognize even when their faces are covered by ski masks and eye protectors.

Later, as we took the cable car to climb the mountain, I asked about his ideal university.

Sichuan University of Media and Communications, he answered.

Working in the media is part of his future plan. And he is going to sit the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, next year, a prospect that does not seem to worry him or make him apprehensive.

He told me that he does OK in examinations and his parents highly support him to pursue his hobbies. Apart from being a snowboarding lover, he is also a member of the high school's basketball team.

"I'm not an ambitious, hard-working student who wanted to enter the country's top universities. My life goal is just staying happy," he said in a carefree tone.

Both of the adolescents remind me of my study-centered junior year in high school.

I had to deal with countless worksheets and never thought about travelling to other places for fun during holidays.

Going to see Jay Chou's concert when the iconic singer-songwriter played my city, Hefei, Anhui province was the most rebellious thing I'd done during the junior year.

Yet Yang and Wang could travel to Keketuohai to practice snowboarding during the National Day holiday with their peers. Their parents and teachers, surprisingly, all backed them.

Times have changed. Lucky them, I thought.

In response to the country's goal of encouraging 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports, Altay prefecture has been actively setting courses of ice-skating, skiing and snowboarding in high schools and primary schools, trying to kindle students' enthusiasm for ice and snow sports.

It seems that the movement works well considering Yang, Wang and other local youngsters' passion for the snow sports.

Interestingly, however, they do have concerns that interrupt their seemingly carefree attitude.

They are inflicted with a problem many young men face ... romance. The two adolescents have a crush on the same girl, a snowboarding enthusiast whom they met in Keketuohai this time.

Such quandaries are often part of growing up amid the thrills and spills of a ski resort.