In Fularji Village, tucked away along China's northeastern border in Heihe, Heilongjiang Province, hockey is far from the polished, stadium-bound game familiar in the West. For the Daur people, who make up around 80 percent of the village, it is a living tradition that stretches back centuries.
Players wield meter-long wooden sticks called "beikuo" to drive fist-sized balls made of wood or animal hair, known as "pulie," across natural arenas -- frozen riverbeds in winter, sunbaked grasslands in summer, and the packed-earth lanes weaving through the village year-round.
The rules are simple: no left-side shots, no striking opponents, and no touching the ball with hands or feet -- unless you are the goalkeeper.
For 65-year-old Du Lihua, the game is inseparable from her childhood winters. "We didn't have proper equipment," she recalls, "but those games warmed our coldest days." In tougher times, children carved balls from apricot roots and raced across ice with homemade sticks, weaving the community together through the games.
"It's a free game that reflects our nomadic lifestyle and bold spirit," says Yuan Tingbao, the village Party secretary.
The Daur ethnic group has a long history, mainly residing in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Daur hockey's origin can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Liao Dynasty (907-1125). In 2006, it was named a national intangible cultural heritage, sparking renewed interest and helping fuel modern hockey's growth in China.
For instance, Inner Mongolia's Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner, a Daur heartland, has produced over 200 national team hockey players and 50 coaches, sending hundreds more across the country.
The development of this sport mirrors the transformation of Fularji Village itself. Yuan remembers the time when brick houses were rare and rice a luxury. Before China's reform and opening-up, per-capita disposable income in Fularji Village was just 2,000 yuan (about 280 U.S. dollars).
Since 2012, resources have been pooled to build Fularji Village into an ethnic-style settlement. Named a pilot site for folk dwellings in 2022, it has drawn on its natural and cultural assets to create a distinctive "agriculture-culture-tourism" route tailored for self-driving travelers.
The shift is visible in household fortunes. Local villagers Wang Shiming and his wife turned their courtyard into a guesthouse. In peak season, they host dozens of visitors a day, earning thousands of yuan a week. The average disposable income of Fularji Village has risen to 25,000 yuan now, Yuan noted.
The sport itself is also becoming a tourism attraction. In Fularji Village, activities such as the Kumule Festival offer visitors ethnic cuisine, traditional dress and hockey matches. "Foreign friends, especially Russian visitors, are eager to play," Yuan said.
In Heihe, Daur hockey is becoming a staple of winter tourism. The city's 2025 ice and snow festival drew nearly 4.5 million visitors, generating over 3.29 billion yuan in revenue, with many coming to watch Daur hockey games.
In China, a country that has spent 37.1 billion yuan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) to support ethnic minority areas in expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation and promoting rural revitalization, the modernization of Daur hockey is not a rare case where tradition and development skate together.
The children of Fularji Village now play hockey on artificial turf in professional facilities instead of rough patches of grass or ice, said Du, the 65-year-old villager.
"Now, the children dare to dream of chasing a place in the national team, and perhaps, one day, on the world stage," Du said.