culture

Many people come to enjoy themselves at the Chongnyu People’s Open-air Ice Rink on the banks of the Taedong River in Pyongyang.

The ice rink is always full of laughter and optimism as visitors flaunt various “skills” on ice.

Before others, regular customers who skate well are the objects of envy and admiration among visitors. Amateur skaters glide on ice at fast speed and suddenly stop or slide backward freely changing their feet one after another to pass through the people. Some of them show graceful skating movements like figure skaters.

A girl said that she acquired figure skating movements while practising skating at the ice rink for several years. She enjoyed a pleasant feeling as she performed movements in time with the music resounding in the ice rink, she added.

Unlike the amateurs, beginners are so awkward in skating that they cause considerable mirth among the visitors.

Some of them take one step after another like toddlers by leaning on the two hands of instructors or their assistants or by using auxiliary apparatuses, others teeter along the edge of the ice rink by holding on to the safety barrier in an effort not to fall on the ice and still others courageously try to skate by themselves but lose balance soon or collide with others to fall on the ice and burst into laughter with great joy. All these scenes add to the pleasant mood of the ice rink.

Hwangbo Hyok, a resident of Taedonggang District in Pyongyang, said that as it was near his home, he often came to the Chongnyu People’s Open-air Ice Rink with his family and whenever he came, he spent a really pleasant time there and added that he has now become an amateur.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un visited the ice rink several times in 2012 alone to give detailed instructions on the management and operation of the ice rink, said its staffer Kim Il Chol. “We are determined to continue to improve our service true to his intention.”