Just got back from China's Northeastern area known as Dongbei and was in the regional capital Harbin and skied at China's main ski resort in Yabuli. This isn't an area that I think many Americans go to but anyone in the PRC in January should check it out. Harbin has an amazing Ice and Snow festival, http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/heilongjiang/harbin/ice_snow.htm that kicks ass over the St. Paul, MN winter carnival. There are amazing snow sculptures and a whole village of ice palaces. The skiing isn't that great but its an interesting experience to go and see rural China. The scenery looks like Wyoming and in addition to modern cars and trucks on the roads you still see people carrying firewood by ox and donkey cart. Fairly friendly people although Harbin like most Chinese cities is pretty packed. Also as of now they don't cater much to American or other Western tourists so don't expect much English to be spoken. The predomonant foreign tourists that I saw were Russians. I'm keeping a blog of my Asia trip on MySpace, www.myspace.com/sishman and will post some pictures, probably not for a few weeks though, there and on CF.net.
