A set of the most common junior hockey equipment is already expensive. It's around two thousand RMB, and with some brands it's tens of thousands of RMB, and a good pair of hockey skates is seven thousand RMB.

Then you have to keep changing the equipment as the level gets higher, and that comes down to thousands and thousands of dollars, not including lessons. And if you want to play, you have to rent a venue, because there are so few of them. You can't play without money.