You never mentioned - what level of hockey do you play? A? AA? AAA?
My son (2010) had his own experience playing a mixed bag of Chinese kids, touring through Canada and Europe to play hockey against random teams. A few were at house league level (older kids, 2007 to 2009),many were at a Select or A level (2009s and 10s) and there were a few kids of lower AA quality (2012 to 2010s). I helped put together a team for them to play against, trying to make it even and fair (but I also wanted to make sure we won, lol). 2-2 going into the 3rd, and Canada came out with a 5-2 victory, team comprised of a similar mixed bag, mostly 2011s and 10s.
My wife, who is Chinese, was our unofficial translator for us, and she said that it was all rich families who had their kids in "elite" hockey programs. Most were very good skaters who had been taken from a skating program and offered a more vigorous, boisterous sport. They trained from 2 to 5 days a week, depending on the season....a similar range to our better players. Supposedly they had Russian coaches/trainers in China. Oh, and they were from Beijing (although the hockey hotspot for China is Harbin, which is in a region with a similar climate to Sudbury.
So the funny part was, our Canadian team was almost entirely Chinese Canadians, or mixed like my boy. It was a lot of fun,
Of course, we only really had 2 AA level players (and I forgot, we gave them a good AA player, a Chinese Canadian kid) and we still won. But, it was a glimpse into the future for sure...supposedly, because a lot of Chinese Canadian kids have really gotten into hockey here, many Chinese there have noticed and it's given them the idea of hockey in China.
They'll be competitive internationally some day, for sure. It's the Canadian connections plus money. A lot of money. And, the strong gov't sponsorship of sport.