words marissa brodney

“Ice hockey is the fastest sport. It’s the fastest game. And you look really cool when you wear the equipment.” Terence Chim, President and Head Coach of the HK Ice Hockey Club, smiles in his store filled with hockey gear and gold trophies. Terence is also captain and coach of the Hong Kong team and has travelled across Asia to play his favourite game on behalf of the SAR. A native of the Fragrant Harbour, he is one of many ice hockey enthusiasts working to turn the sport into the Hong Kong phenomenon it’s fast becoming. “In Asia,” he explains, “ice hockey is growing up really fast. In the next five to 10 years, I would say Hong Kong hockey will have over 1,500 players. We are entering the schools with programmes, and people are getting interested. Adults can learn too – a 40-year-old can still learn to skate and join the league.”

Ice hockey in the land of dragonfruit and tropical storms? As the increasing popularity of the sport locally indicates, many now recognize ice skating as a way to escape the heat rather than as a sport confined to colder climes. The SAR is home to strong hockey, figure- and speed-skating communities – as well as four ice rinks easy to reach by public transport. Lounging on the beaches of the south side of the island might be one way to spend a lazy afternoon, but trying your hand at ice skating is just as cool. And definitely colder.

“There’s skill, speed, and you can hit people,” says 19-year-old Peter Yeung, who plays recreational ice hockey twice a week with his friends and wants others to learn more about the ice hockey scene. “It’s a famous sport in Canada, the USA, Finland – we need to make it more popular here,” he says. The SAR played for the first time at last year’s Asian Winter Games, sponsored by the Olympic Council of Asia, and hosted the World Ice Hockey 5’s (the largest ice hockey tournament in Asia) earlier this year. Canadian university and former North American National Hockey League (NHL) players alike now play in the local ice hockey leagues – leagues which can lay claim to TVB coverage and consistently draw rinkside crowds.

But there’s much more to ice skating in Hong Kong than just hockey. In 2006, Hong Kong sent one competitor to the Winter Olympic Games: that competitor was a speed skater. Han Yue-shuang represented Hong Kong in the women’s 500m, 1000m, and 1500m events – making speed skating the vehicle with which Hong Kong presented itself to the world at those games. And the skating community is interconnected; Terence Chim’s mother was a speed skater and, in 1982, took second place in the Hong Kong ice-skating open. At the time, she was seven months pregnant with Terence. She took gold the following year.

Hong Kong figure skaters participated in the world championships for the first time in 1985, and have since built figure skating into a viable recreational activity and serious sport in the territory. The SAR hosted the first week-long ISI Skate Asia competition in 1989, and then hosted the competition again in 2001. The HK Skating Union works with the International Skating Union to offer the level tests that give skaters a competitive track to the Olympics.

You don’t have to be a child to pick up the sport. Doris Li is a HK Baptist University student who started figure skating only recently. “When I was younger,” she explains, “I lived in Tai Koo Shing, where an ice rink is located [in Cityplaza]. I could always see people my age or older spinning and jumping, and I found it elegant and beautiful. However I’ve got asthma, so I guess that’s why I started late.” Hong Kong ice rinks offer private and group lessons, and the rinks at Dragon Centre and Megabox run adult skating courses from 7-10pm, so nobody has to give up their weekends to learn to skate. For late learners like Doris, it is worth the time and effort. “The thing I like most about ice skating is the concentration I have when I’m doing it,” she says. “It’s like others don’t exist, even though people are all around you. It’s such an independent sport: if you fall down, you’ve got to get up by yourself. And the greatest part is it makes me happy – I forget all my worries on the ice.”

Ice skating is at once a recreational activity, intense sport, and spectator event. Says Cityplaza figure-skating coach Tony Leung about skating in Hong Kong, “It is becoming more popular because it is convenient for people to do. The rinks are in the shopping malls, it doesn’t depend on the weather because it is indoors, and also it is easy to get to the ice rinks… they are all on the MTR system. And they provide a good and safe environment: there is security outside the malls, ice guards inside the rinks.” Skating culture is here and growing. You only have to be part of it.

To play ice hockey: Head to the rinks at Dragon Centre and Megabox. These are the only two rinks in Hong Kong that rent out hockey skates and time to ice hockey players. Dragon Centre’s skate shop, right next to the rink, is the single store devoted to selling ice hockey gear in all of Hong Kong. Dragon Centre offers both group and private lessons specifically on ice hockey, although Megabox is Hong Kong’s first and only international-sized rink (at 57m x 26m), making it by far the biggest around. The HK American Hockey Club hosts league games at Megabox in cooperation with the Women’s Ice Hockey Organization, as does the Asia Sports League. MegaIce’s surface feels slightly different from those of the other Hong Kong rinks because its ice is set atop a concrete floor, in the style of professional ice arenas.

To Speed Skate: The rink at Festival Walk is currently the only one on which speed skaters practice in Hong Kong, on those occasions when the HK Speed Skating team rents ice time. Because this rink is below expansive and elevated balconies, spectators get an excellent view. Inquire about training programmes sponsored by the HK Skating Union for prospective Olympians.

To figure skate: You can enroll in learn-to-skate lessons at any of Hong Kong’s ice rinks, but those at Festival Walk and Cityplaza have the most established figure-skating programmes. Cityplaza’s figure-skating school teaches from the ISI model, a system that coach Tony Leung explains is “more about the amateur and the beginner – more about learning to skate, and developing interest”. Festival Walk, in conjunction with the HK Skating Union, offers champion and core training programmes in addition to recreational learning. MegaIce is unique in renting out Graf figure skates, the kind of high-quality ice footwear with good leather and padding that figure skaters pay a lot of money for. Go to all rinks late at night or early on weekends when public sessions are not so crowded.

The storeys of open space between Festival Walk’s Glacier Rink and the ceiling create the most open feeling of all the rinks I visited, even when the rink is crowded (which it can be). Ask about the stored-value Privilege card, which operates like an Octopus card for session entries and gives the cardholder $5 discounts on session costs.
No 21, Level UG, Festival Walk, 80 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, 2844 3588
How to get there: Kowloon Tong MTR and KCR

Cityplaza’s Ice Palace feels more intimate and is a good deal smaller, but here I skated on the best pair of rental skates of any of the rinks I visited. Famous names like Olympic and World Champions Dorothy Hamill, Chen Lu, David Liu, and Charlie Tickner have been seen on the ice at Cityplaza. Ask about the stored-value Privilege card here as well.
1/F, Cityplaza, 18 Taikoo Shing Road, Taikoo Shing, Island East, 2844 8688
How to get there: Tai Koo MTR

MegaBox’s MegaIce is huge, with components imported from the US. The view of Victoria Harbour is glorious, and a long outdoor patio is occasionally open for seating. Everything down to the rental skates is new, and the only downside is that getting to the rink can be a bit inconvenient.
10/F, MegaBox, 38 Wang Chiu Road, Kowloon Bay, 2709 4020
How to get there: Kowloon Bay MTR, then board the shuttle bus in the basement of Telford Plaza or take the well sign-posted 10 to 15-minute walk.

The vibrant hockey scene at Dragon Centre’s Sky Rink is its strongest asset. It might not look as new as some of the other rinks, but its hockey infrastructure is solid. Go there to learn from some of the best, and check out the Hong Kong and China Skate Company store (Shop 819). Sky Rink offers wacky discount days: on Tuesdays, women pay $30 for the day; on Wednesdays, skating school students pay only $25; Thursdays mean men only have to pay $30, and Saturdays and Sundays children aged 12 and under can enter for $30 before 1pm.
8/F, Dragon Centre, 37K Yen Chow St, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, 2307 9264
How to get there: Sham Shui Po MTR

But before you hit the ice, consider what makes a good pair of skates. And how can you avoid becoming a statistic in a Hong Kong Medical Journal’s study. Ice skate blades do not just rest above the ice; they cut into the surface, and a good skate blade will have sharp inside and outside edges (this is part of what keeps a skater from slipping and sliding all over the rink). At the skate rental counter, ask specifically for a pair of skates that have been newly sharpened, as that can make a huge difference to your skating experience. But remember that also means you are asking to be handed a pair of sharp blades to strap to your feet: protection is key. Wear gloves, not only as protection from the cold and the ice’s hard and jagged surface should you fall, but also against cuts from other skaters’ blades. Keep your balance and your form by keeping your ankles upright and imagining yourself as a pencil that bends at the knees – straight-backed rather than flopping around like a fish out of water…or at least on top of the frozen kind. Always skate safely.