Irresistible beauty

Ye's interest in figure skating stems from the Japanese anime Yuri!!! on Ice and the famous Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, who has gained countless fans in China with his amazing skills, good looks and resilient character.

However, it was not until she witnessed the graceful skater at the Chengdu ice rink that she finally made up her mind to try figure skating. "It's so beautiful! I just can't resist trying it myself," she said.

Ye and Wang both describe themselves as introverted young women. But that evening, they waited outside the rink for half an hour until closing time before summoning the courage to approach the elegant skater to ask for a WeChat contact and any advice she could offer a beginner.

Wang said learning figure skating was a childhood dream.

"Around sixth grade, I saw people skating in a mall and really wanted to learn," she recalled. However, due to the scarcity of ice rinks in Chengdu at that time, and the nearest one being far away from her home — coupled with mounting academic pressure — her mother refused her wishes.

Now, with a skating rink that is open until 9:30 pm and just a 15-minute walk from her home, that childhood dream is finally within reach.

"The good thing is, it's still not too late. Even if I hadn't started at 25, I would probably have taken it up at 35," she said.

Both have invested a lot in their passion: a pair of ice skates costs about 4,500 yuan ($650), with blades and a full set of protective gear pushing the total to over 5,000 yuan — roughly equivalent to one month's salary for each of them. A package of 18 lessons and six months of rink access costs an additional 3,999 yuan.

"The money is well spent," Wang said. "I live paycheck to paycheck. If I didn't spend the money on figure skating, it would be spent elsewhere anyway."

Yi Xianglin, 33, the woman who caught Ye and Wang's eye on the ice, has been figure skating for more than two years. As there is no rink in her home city of Leshan, Sichuan — which is 140 kilometers from Chengdu — the healthcare professional has to take a bullet train to the provincial capital every time she wants to practice.

"I love sports, so I tried figure skating after watching the Beijing Winter Olympics, and soon got completely hooked," Yi said.

On weekdays, she used to head straight from work to the railway station. A one-way trip to the rink takes two hours.

If work runs late, she barely has an hour on the ice before heading home. When she misses the last train, a hotel near the railway station is her only option. But she is able to get to work on time the next morning.

Yi said nothing brings her a greater sense of accomplishment than figure skating.

"I think I look really beautiful on the ice, so I take lots of videos to capture those moments," she said. Figure skating has now become her favorite sport, and she travels to Chengdu every Saturday and Sunday to practice.

"I don't pressure myself to master difficult moves. What matters more is enjoying the process," she said. "I love skating alone with my earphones on, moving to the beat of the music and losing myself in the moment."