IIHF Women World Championship Div 1 | 04/13 12:00 | 1 | Slovakia Women v China Women | - | View | |
IIHF Women World Championship Div 1 | 04/14 12:00 | 2 | China Women v Austria Women | - | View | |
IIHF Women World Championship Div 1 | 04/16 12:00 | 3 | China Women v Netherlands Women | - | View | |
IIHF Women World Championship Div 1 | 04/17 12:00 | 4 | France Women v China Women | - | View | |
IIHF Women World Championship Div 1 | 04/19 12:00 | 5 | China Women v Denmark Women | - | View |
The Chinese women's national ice hockey team (simplified Chinese: 中国国家女子冰球队; traditional Chinese: 中國國家女子冰球隊; pinyin: Zhōngguó Guójiā Nǚzǐ Bīngqiú Duì) represents China at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Women's Championships, the Asian Winter Games, and other international competitions. The women's national team is governed by the Chinese Ice Hockey Association. China's national women's program is ranked twentieth in the world by the IIHF and has 808 active players as of 2020.
China reached their hey day of women's hockey in the mid-90s when they finished as high as 4th place mostly thanks to the "Great Wall of China" goaltender, Guo Hong, who is now retired. China had 174 women's ice hockey players in 2011.
Motivated to gain exposure to a more challenging level of competition, the Chinese national team competed in the Naisten SM-sarja, the premier women's league in Finland, for thirteen games in the 2005–06 season and for twelve games in the 2006–07 season.
In 2022, China competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics as the host nation. Going into the tournament, they relied heavily on the development of players on the Vanke Rays team and were seen as having a real chance at making the quarterfinals. They lost their opening game to Czech Republic, before defeating the lowest ranked qualifier, Denmark, and Japan in a shootout which was enough for Japan to clinch a playoff berth. Going into their last game against Sweden, a point would have been enough to secure a quarterfinal berth, but after taking the lead, the Chinese lost 2–1 against the Swedes. They were formally eliminated after Sweden beat Denmark in the last game of Group B.
Only two months after the Winter Olympics, they played in the 2022 IIHF Women's World Championship Division IB in Katowice, Poland. They ended up dominating the competition, scoring 38 goals in the group to secure promotion to the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship Division IA. In November 2022, they were given the hosting rights to the group. Nine months later, they would end up winning the Division IA tournament and be promoted to the 2024 IIHF Women's World Championship after defeating Austria 2–0 in Shenzhen. This will be China's first appearance in the top tier since 2009.