You referee and play for Beijing International Ice Hockey and you also coach around town. How strong is Beijing’s hockey community? I wouldn’t say it’s huge. It’s established. This league’s been going on for four, five years. Even from last year to this year, there’s a lot more players. Now we have five teams, almost 100 players.

How competitive is the league? It’s pretty serious. Every Sunday, we play two games. We keep score, the teams have their own uniforms. Rankings are all on the website. During the week some guys get together to play shinny hockey (hockey for fun) on Houhai.

How does playing and coaching hockey in Beijing compare to back home in Canada? There, hockey is everywhere but here it’s almost nowhere. So for a lot of people in mens’ leagues, hanging out with the guys is a big part of the experience and brings back memories of home. Here, it’s fun to be with people from all over the world and talk about our jobs, lives or whatever.

What’s it take to be a good hockey player? You have to have a little bit mean streak, a killer instinct. It’s not golf or tennis. Our league isn’t a contact league. But there’s still a bit of rough stuff. If you don’t have that in you, you wont be that effective or probably wouldn’t enjoy hockey.

DETAILS What: Ice Hockey When: Sundays Web: www.beijinghockey.com Contact: marksim14@hotmail.com