Guo Junhua (right) and Mehrangez Tojiboeva (left)

With the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics around the corner, Beijing Women's International Exchange Center, affiliated with Beijing Women's Federation, produced a program, 2021 Her Beijing. The program featured Guo Junhua, a native of Yanqing District, in Beijing, and one of the gate referees for the alpine skiing event during the 2022 Winter Olympics, and her friend, Mehrangez Tojiboeva, from Tajikistan, both of whom experienced the pre-Games atmosphere in Yanqing.

Guo Junhua

The program, supported by Beijing NGO Network for International Exchanges and Yanqing Women's Federation, was recorded on October 29, 2021. It was uploaded on China's leading video platforms, including Tencent, Iqiyi and Youku, and various domestic and international social-media platforms, in November 2021.

The program is part of 2021 Her Beijing, the series that records the stories of Chinese and foreign women, who live and work in Beijing, to present a real and vivid Beijing from the perspective of women.

Tojiboeva is an international trade student at the University of Science and Technology Beijing. She met Guo last year during an exchange activity for entrepreneurs in Beijing. They quickly became good friends.

"I didn't expect there would be so many mountains in Beijing's suburbs. It looks like my hometown in Tajikistan, which is called the Country of Mountains," Tojiboeva says in the video.

"Yanqing District is fully prepared for the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games," Guo told Tojiboeva, as they walked around Yanqing Sports Science and Technology Innovation Park.

"There are ski clubs, winter sports outfit stores, ski outfits manufacturers and design companies in the park. Our ski club is also in here," Guo added.

Guo Junhua teaches children how to ski.

In her office, Guo showed Tojiboeva a special snowboard. "This board has been with me for about 20 years. You can see there is a crack because I broke this board right here. I fell on it when I first learned. Fortunately, I was not seriously injured. One of my friends fixed the broken board for me."

Guo began skiing in 1999, just after Shijinglong Ski Resort (in Yanqing) opened to the public. At that time, she was a 16-year-old middle school student. The ski resort was not far from her home, and Guo practiced almost daily during ski season.

Guo moved to Japan when she was 24, to improve her skiing skills. "When I first arrived in Japan, I had to adapt to the local lifestyle, and I worked a part-time job … As I was so far away from home … no matter how hard it was, I would never give up," she recalled.

In 2013, Guo qualified as a skiing coach, and she received a certificate. Shortly after, she was named head coach of skiing at a club in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

In July 2015, after she heard Beijing and Zhangjiakou, in North China's Heibei Province, had won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, and Yanqing was one of the three competition zones, Guo quit her job in Sichuan, and she returned to Beijing. "I must do something for my hometown," she said.

Sun Shujuan (left), Vice-President of Yanqing Guishui Women's Crafts Promotion Association, presents a gift to Mehrangez Tojiboeva (center).

In response to China's efforts to encourage 300 million people, across the country, to participate in winter sports, Guo and her friends in 2017 established Beijing Polar Ski Club. To date, the club has trained more than 20,000 children or teenagers, and some of the excellent trainees have joined Yanqing District Youth Sport Skiing Team.

When Tojiboeva asked Guo what it was like being an alpine skiing referee, Guo shared her work experiences during the winter sports test events, which were held in Yanqing in February 2021. "We got up at 4:30 am and set out at 5 am for the National Alpine Skiing Center, the venue of the Winter Olympics alpine skiing competition. As gate referees, we arrived in our positions at least two hours before the competitions started, and we stood there for at least five hours during the competitions," Guo said.

"We are not allowed to ski casually on the racing tracks, because we must ensure the tracks are intact, and the athletes are safe to ski on the tracks. During the 2022 Winter Olympics, we need to cooperate with foreign referees. That will be a good opportunity for us to obtain more experience," she added. Guo said she is proud to be able to contribute to the Beijing Winter Olympics, as the only woman gate referee in Yanqing.

Whether practicing skiing, starting a business or participating in the Winter Olympic Games, Guo has always received strong support from her relatives. Her family has been honored as one of the most beautiful families, in both Yanqing District and Beijing.

As part of the 2021 Her Beijing program, Guo invited Tojiboeva to have dinner at her home, in Zhangshanying Town, in Yanqing. "Thank you for preparing so many delicious dishes. The dumplings taste really good," Tojiboeva told Guo's mother, He Xiulan.

The program's production team also invited Sun Shujuan, Vice-President of Yanqing Guishui Women's Crafts Promotion Association, who presented a special gift to Tojiboeva, on behalf of the association.

Sun told Tojiboeva about the gift. "This is a 'leather-carving painting' made by the craftswomen of our association. It looks like an oil painting, but it is actually carved on a single sheet of leather. The painting, depicting a young woman dancing on the ice, represents the wishes and active participation of women in the Winter Olympics," Sun explained.

"I heard the artists in your country had made a hard-stone mosaic painting for the 2022 Winter Olympics. That was perfect," Sun added.

Tojiboeva was happy to receive such an exquisite present. "People in Yanqing are very friendly, and I can feel the strong atmosphere of the Winter Olympics. I am particularly looking forward to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics," Tojiboeva said.

(Source: Beijing Women's International Exchange Center and Yanqing Women's Federation/Women of China English Monthly January 2022 issue)