Last day of lift-assisted skiing in Southern Finland

On April 3 I was wondering if I'd done my last lift-assisted turns in Southern Finland. But no, they were done today on April 12, at Vihti Ski. I was on the tail end of a flu, so only showed up half an hour before they would close (at 12!) and was one the last lifts up. Wonderful skiing though.

Golfers were already out ... and outnumbered the skiers. Still a lot of skiers, kids and adults and even hard core racers.

The spring is at least a month ahead, on several years there's been skiing in Vihti or Hyvinkää in early May. Sigh. Global warming or just this year?

Sadly, my flu prevented me from joining Jarmo at Vihti on the previous day. The next day I had recovered enough to manage a couple of runs. Still, writing this in the evening, I wonder if I should have gone... illness has not gone away or has gotten back...

According to ski.fi there's one more ski resort open though, but that's 200 km north from where I am. Sappee. I was there few years ago, after they had closed... and was chased by an angry snow cat. Perhaps rightly so, I shouldn't have been there when they were closed. Still.

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko.

Hong Kong caves at the Cape d'Aguilar

Are there caves in Hong Kong? With the mountainous region this small place has, one would assume there are some. I found a handful on my search through the interwebs, but most of them were not easily accessible, beach caves on islands that would require a boat trip, caves that can only be accessed from the sea, etc. However, the Cape d'Aguilar Marine Reserve hosts two wonderful caves that can be reached relatively easily. Both of these are beach caves.

To get to the marine reserve, one has to first get to the Shau Kei Wan train station, then take bus 9 to Windy Gap (not all bus nines stops at that though, see more detailed instructions here), and then walk four kilometers through the park to the reserve on the south end of the peninsula. We opted taking a taxi from my hotel in Hong Kong city center, all the way to Windy Gap. That is the easiest option, and not particularly expensive either (25-30€).

The walk from Windy Gap to the is very nice, along a gently sloping asphalt road among lush forests and hills. At the some point you hit some radio station areas, which you'll have to go around (don't go to fenced areas). Once past that point you will continue again on an asphalt road, until you arrive at the marine research building and the whale skeleton displayed in front of it.

Here's an overview of the marine reserve area, with the research building on the left.

And the whale:

Just before the marine research building there's a depression on the left, with a clearly visible large crack on the other side rock. This is the first, and more spectacular cave. It is a crack through the small hill, you enter from the land side/depression into the crack. The crack goes all the way to the sea on the other side of the hill, and waves crash inside the cave as well. Be careful, don't get drawn in the water by the waves!

A spectacular cave!

Then if you go around the research building, just behind the whale skeleton there's another cave, a rock arch. Also here the waves crash through the hole, be very careful here as well. Spectacular arch, but not as cave like as the other cave.

The crack cave, Cape d'Aguilar Sea Cave, is at N 22.208416 E 114.259597, and the arch cave, also Cape d'Aguilar Sea Cave, is at N 22.208037 E 114.260739.

More pictures from the crack cave:

And from the rock arch cave:

And from the marine reserve:

I did this on the way in on my conference trip to China (flights were most convenient to Hong Kong), and on the way we managed to look (but not visit) at yet another cave, the Dragon Claw Cave. See the other article (alt. link).

After the cave excursion, I continued on the high-speed train to China's Shenzhen. The trains were wonderful, see below for a view of what kind of accommodation one needs for the the very long 12 minute trip. (Lower class tickets were sold out.)

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Qianhai Snow World - Largest indoor ski hall in the world

Wow. It is new, just opened four months ago. I knew there was an indoor ski place in Shenzhen where I was traveling for a conference, but I did not know that they would have the world's largest indoor ski hall. Now I *had* to find an evening to visit it.

They can prove they are the largest:

Quite remarkable experience. Generally any ski hall is big, but not necessarily enormous. This one felt massive even from the outside. The numbers are also remarkable: 1.5 kilometers of slopes, largest vertical drop 90 meters, two chair lifts and three other lifts.

The building was simply massive, this photo was taken couple of kilometers away:

And it was very well done. Not tacky or broken as some places may be. But efficient, modern, clean, and overall well organized. Except maybe for my ability to find this place or use their website to buy a ticket. There was quite a bit of confusion in Google Maps and other map services about the location, as there are *several* indoor ski halls in Shenzhen, and some of them are similarly named.

But trip.com gave me a possibility to buy a ticket beforehand, quite easily, and even on site my friend who didn't have a ticket was able to buy one on site in couple of minutes. 

If there's one complain it is that the slope design is a bit too straightforward. That is, the slopes are straight :-) I keep comparing this to the previously largest one (also in China, in Harbin, article and alt. link) or one of my favorites Big Snow (in United States, New Jersey, article and alt. link). Or the one in Dubai. And in all of these cases the other large ski halls seem to feel better from a slope perspective. In Harbin, for instance, the blue slope makes a 180 degree turn so that it ends up being a bit less steep and much longer than the it would be if it were straight. Also, generally the different slopes aren't as strictly separated for instance in Dubai as they are here in Shenzhen. 

I'd prefer skiing in the three alternative halls over the one in Shenzhen. But skiing was of course great anyway. Much appreciated the opportunity to try this out.

The official web site of Qianhai Snow World is here. If you want to buy tickets via trip.com, use this link.

Slopes, lifts, and skiing:

More pictures from the outside of the building:

Beginner and children's are was at the other end of the hall. Complete with gentle slopes, magic carpets, snow castles, snowfall, etc.

Offices, changing rooms, tickets, etc:

I brought my skis all the way from Finland for this, despite not knowing beforehand that it was going to be such a big experience.

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko.

Shenzhen airport

I did not have the opportunity to fly through Shenzhen airport on my visit in Shenzhen, but I've been there before. I did drive by it, however.

A massive airport, handling over 50 million passengers per year, which lands it on the fourth place in terms of busiest airports in China.

The official home page is here, and the wikipedia article here.

My previous trip to Shenzhen was reported here (alt. link).

This article has also been published in Planetflier.com here. For more flying stories, check out the Planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! Photos, videos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Swimming with a 747 staring at you from the window

Corendon hotel, near the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. A six-hour layover requires something else than sitting at the airport seats. So I found a spa at the Corendon hotel. Nice, small spa with a sauna and a steam room, a nice curving pool and small baby pool. As I was floating in the pool, the realization stuck me: a 747 was starting me straight from the window. 

Read more about the 747 here and here. The plane is labelled as being in the colors of the Corendon Airlines, the owner of the hotel. But in reality it was a KLM plane.

There's a restaurant at Corendon hotel, better option than stopping at airport restaurants I think. And they insist on desserts having ice cream in them...

To get to the hotel, one needs to take a free shuttle bus (every half an hour) from the airport. And on return you need to pay at the reception, only 5€ though, and much better option than a hassle with taxis, that I've had at some other airports .. 

At the airport I was also delighted to see an aviation-related shop, Planes @ Plaza, however it turned out to be more young kid-oriented than for instance PLANEWEAR at the SeaTac airport (article, alt. link).

I was here due to taking a KLM flight somewhere (reported here, alt. link).

This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com, sauna articles at saunablogger.cool, and flying articles at planetflier.com. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. Pool photo is by the hotel, from their home page.