Lake Songhua sits 15 km from Jilin City: 50 runs, 570 m vertical and night skiing. Getting there from Changchun Longjia and when to go for rime ice.
CTG Songhua Lake sits on Daqing Mountain about 15 km from central Jilin City, a short drive by road. That distance shapes everything else about the place: you sleep in the city, eat at ordinary restaurants, are on the slopes inside half an hour, and are back at a dinner table without packing a bag. Very few large ski areas anywhere sit that close to a real city.
The mountain is built for a mixed group. Nearly half of the 50 runs are beginner terrain, wide and forgiving, so a child learning to turn has somewhere to go while the stronger skiers in your party head up. Above the base, Daqing Mountain is more than 95% forest rather than the bare brown hillside you find at most Chinese resorts. The full breakdown is on the resort page.
The evening is the third thing. Night skiing stretches the day, the slopes look down over the frozen lake, and the drive back to town is a short hop instead of a long mountain road. If your trip is three days long, night sessions are how it becomes five days of skiing.
Comparing Songhua Lake to Beidahu and Changbaishan? Our skiing in Jilin comparison puts all three side by side.
Two housekeeping notes before you book anything. The resort is no longer branded Vanke: it is run by China Tourism Group and listed as CTG Songhua Lake, so search the new name or you will end up booking years-old listings. And Jilin province sits outside the short-stay transit visa-free area, so check your own entry rules well before you fly. Our travel essentials page explains what changes from year to year and where to check it.
| Stat | Lake Songhua |
|---|---|
| Runs | 50 |
| Piste length | about 31 km |
| Lifts | 6 high-speed lifts |
| Vertical | 570 m, from a 330 m base to a 900 m summit |
| Skiable area | 230 ha (2.3 million m2) |
| Terrain mix | 48% beginner, 39% intermediate, 13% advanced |
| Night skiing | yes |
That terrain mix is the number that matters, and it cuts both ways. Only about one run in eight is advanced, which makes Lake Songhua one of the easier big Chinese resorts to bring a mixed group to. Mixed groups are the norm in China, and wide green terrain means the slowest person in your party still has a run they can finish without falling. It also means this is not the place for an expert chasing long, steep, sustained pitches: 31 km of piste spread across 50 runs is breadth rather than depth.
The snow is northeast Chinese snow: dry, cold and light. Jilin City's January average low is about -20.8 degrees. It is properly cold, but that same cold is what keeps the snow dry and the groomers happy through February. Dress in layers, wear a face cover and mitts rather than thin gloves, carry hand warmers, and keep your phone inside your jacket between runs or it will arrive dead.
From the upper slopes the frozen Songhua Lake spreads out below the base, which is a different view from the dry hillsides most resorts of this size offer. Night skiing is the easiest way to squeeze two or three extra hours out of a cold day, and here the lake is what you are looking at while you do it.
The 2025-26 season opened on 22 November 2025, when Jilin's season launch was held at the resort alongside the 31st Jilin Rime Ice and Snow Festival. There is no fixed published closing calendar date; the resort's usual window runs into early March, and that is an estimate rather than a commitment. The 2026-27 dates had not been published when we last checked, so start from our opening dates page and then confirm directly with the resort.
If you want to pair skiing with something else, January and February are the months to pick. Vapour rising from the unfrozen stretch of the Songhua River below the Fengman dam freezes onto the riverside trees in Jilin city overnight, and by first light the banks are coated in rime ice. Go early, before the sun starts melting it. Our Jilin rime ice guide covers the timings and the alternative viewpoints.
Fly into Changchun Longjia airport, the international gateway for this part of Jilin, with direct flights from Seoul-Incheon and a few Southeast Asian cities. In the 2025-26 season an airport coach, T989, ran from Longjia to Lake Songhua in about two hours for 60 yuan one way, sold through the Jilin airport bus WeChat account or at the arrivals hall. Whether those services run again in 2026-27 had not been announced, so treat a pre-booked taxi or transfer as your fallback rather than the plan.
Jilin City is a regional rail hub and only a short drive from the base, so staying in the city is the cheap, easy option for a couple of days of skiing: more choice of hotels, proper restaurants and somewhere you can walk out of at night. Staying at the resort puts you on the hill for first lift with no alarm clock, and some rooms are ski-in, ski-out. The city wins on price and on rime ice; the resort wins on mornings.
We do not have a confirmed published day-ticket price for Lake Songhua, and 2026-27 prices were not out when we checked. Chinese resorts generally sell day, half-day (usually four hours), multi-day and night tickets, and weekend and public-holiday prices can be roughly double a weekday. Buy at the ticket office with your passport, or through the resort's mini-programme inside WeChat or Alipay, and check the price for your exact dates before you travel rather than assuming last season's number holds.
Budget separately for rental, a lesson if you want one, and food. Rental quality varies a lot between Chinese resorts, and boot fit matters more than most people expect.
If you have a full week in the province, the wider picture is worth reading. Beidahu, on the other side of Jilin City, has close to 870 m of vertical and is the steep option, and Changbaishan is the third big option if you have the days to spend on transfers.
Can you ski at Lake Songhua from Jilin city? Yes. It is about 15 km from central Jilin City, a short drive by road, which makes it one of the few big Chinese resorts you can day-trip from a city hotel.
When does the season run? The 2025-26 season opened on 22 November 2025 and the resort normally skis into early March, though closing dates are estimates rather than published commitments. Check the opening dates page above and confirm with the resort.
Is it good for beginners? Yes. About 48% of the terrain is beginner and only about 13% advanced, so it suits mixed groups better than most Chinese resorts.
How do I get there from the airport? Changchun Longjia airport is the gateway; in 2025-26 bus T989 took about two hours for 60 yuan. That service was not confirmed for 2026-27, so arrange a taxi or transfer as a backup.