Racing through history

China's Vasaloppet in Changchun witnesses hundreds of elite skiers competing to get their first China stamp on their Vasaloppet 'passport' since the country officially joined the global organization last summer. Wang Jing / China Daily

Norwegian Magne Andreas Westerheim, who has competed in every Worldloppet country except New Zealand and Iceland, says he wanted to participate in China's first Vasaloppet since it joined the international body.

The 76-year-old also hoped to get the China stamp in his Worldloppet "passport".

Skiers who get 10 stamps, including at least one overseas, earn a masters' certificate and gold medal.

"It's the biggest honor for an amateur cross-country skier," Vasaloppet co-founder Bengt-Erik Bengtsson explains.

But Westerheim has even bigger dreams.

"I hope to become Norway's first skier to get all 20 countries' stamps," Westerheim says.

"The passport is very important for us old skiers."

But his 73-year-old partner Berit Kristiansen has a different motivation for joining the Changchun leg.

"I came for this," Kristiansen says, holding up her smartphone to show a multistory snow sculpture of a castle.

She beams as she flicks through more sculpture photos.

"When (Norway) hosted the Olympic Games, we had a dozen or so sculptures," she explains.

"But here, it's 100 percent."

Dozens of massive likenesses are chiseled into snow along the race's starting line.