Harbin, China, August 12, 2025: Zhasmin Shlaga literally let her hair down when she posed in silhouette for a photo in the spotlights along Central Street in Harbin on Tuesday evening, August 12.
After two-and-a-half days of training on ice, Kyrgyz teenager Zhasmin and her peers – 46 other youngsters from 20 Asian countries and regions attending the Asian Figure Skating Youth Camp – got the afternoon off to go sightseeing.
First stop was the world-famous Harbin Ice and Snow World. As it was summer, all the ice carving exhibits were indoors – in winter it would take almost a full day to cover the entire exhibition.
Then it was on to Central Street, the longest pedestrian street in Asia measuring 1,450 metres long. Cobbled, it was built in 1898 by Russian constructors when the city was at its semi-colonial period. Baroque and renaissance buildings which straddle the entire street were jam-packed – being summer, it seemed as if the rest of China was visiting.
This did not prevent Zhasmin, 16, from posing artistically for a photo, in a typical figure skating posture, much to the delight of her new-found friends as well as the Chinese public.
“This entire trip has been so cool and I have learned a lot. But it was good to get a break and get a chance to see the city. But tomorrow it will be back on the ice for us,” Zhasmin smiled.
There was a fitting finale to the night with the final stop being the flagship store of Chinese sporting company 361 Degrees – a proud partner of OCA – down Central Street. With a 30 per cent discount offered for participants of the camp, it was widely welcomed by the athletes and coaches.
The 47 young athletes attending the first-ever OCA-organised figure skating camp made the most of the opportunity and revelled at being let off the leash – organisers maintain a strict ‘no-going out’ policy from the hotel and lights out is usually around 9.30pm.
And they let Harbin know the OCA-ISU-CAIC group was in town as they shouted in unison “I love Harbin’ after every group shot. Memories were made on the streets of the city.
