HARBIN, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- What do Chinese people do during the Spring Festival holiday besides visiting relatives and friends? For the first winter after the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, a popular activity is ice and snow sports.Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has a cold winter climate and a deep history of ice and snow sports.During the Spring Festival holiday, there are always many cars parked on the snowy slopes of the roads in Harbin. People carry snow rings and can enjoy the whole day on the snowy slopes."I bought a snow ring last year. I come to play with my children during the Spring Festival holiday. There are also places to rent snow rings nearby," said Zhang Shuobin, a Harbin resident.For those who aren't keen on snow, skating is a suitable alternative. Whether it is the Songhua River that runs through Harbin, or the frozen lakes in the parks, it can become a paradise for ice skating lovers. In Harbin's Daixiu Lake Park, the frozen lake is designed to look like a rainbow as people glide along colorful slides.On the frozen Daixiu Lake, there are also several skating coaches training their students, and some children are playing with traditional ice spinning tops.In Harbin, there is no need to enter well-equipped stadiums to play ice hockey during the winter holiday. Hockey enthusiasts have set up small fields with homemade goals where six people can split into two teams on frozen rivers."Before the Spring Festival, my friends and I agreed to play ice hockey during the Spring Festival. The weather is very cold these days, but it can't stop us," said ice hockey fan Sun Tianfu.In the first winter after the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, enthusiasm for ice and snow sports not only lit up the streets of Harbin, but also lit up the local tourism market.The 500-meter-long slide at Harbin Ice and Snow World is very popular this winter, where there are long queues almost every day. The ice sports park built on the frozen Songhua River has become an unmissable attraction for tourists.Standing on the banks of the Songhua River, you can see all kinds of snow and ice recreational facilities, including snowmobiles, snowbikes, curling."The Beijing Winter Olympic Games has aroused people's enthusiasm for ice and snow sports, and the enthusiasm for these activities during the Spring Festival has not waned," said He Li, director of development and operation of Harbin Songhuajiang Ice and Snow Carnival.Yabuli ski resort has attracted skiers from all over the country this Spring Festival. "During the Spring Festival holiday, I wanted to go skiing in the mountains, so I came to Yabuli," said Qi Siteng from south China's Guangdong Province, who spent three days of his seven-day Spring Festival holiday in Yabuli.On the eve of the Spring Festival, a number of youth ice and snow sports competitions were held in Harbin, including the National Youth Ice Hockey Invitational Tournament, Ice and Snow Games for primary and middle school students and some snow football games."The Beijing Winter Olympic Games has not only promoted the development of competitive sports in China, but also aroused the enthusiasm of the Chinese people for ice and snow sports," said Qian Fuyong, director of the sports bureau of Heilongjiang Province. 編輯：韓犬戎
Having spent the first day of the Spring Festival holiday at home, He Rui rushed to the ski resort early on the second day and was ready to start the Year of the Rabbit on his snowboard. This enthusiast has mastered the S-turn, and is working on his edging.Since He started skiing two years ago, the 11-year-old has gotten used to getting up early and heading for the Jiulong International Ski Resort in the suburbs of Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province, sometimes even before dawn."People used to stay at home and relax during the Spring Festival holiday. But as our society places greater value on healthy lifestyle, more people are willing to spend their holiday skiing," said Chang Yulin, director of the ski resort. Chang said that the resort received more than 2,000 guests per day recently, including some coming from other provinces.The Spring Festival holiday, when Chinese people traditionally travel home for family reunions, runs from Jan. 21 to 27 this year.For Qiao Jian, a ski-lover from Taiyuan, skiing has become his new habit to celebrate the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year. He has flown with his family to northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, where the ice and snow atmosphere is more developed, for the third consecutive year."In addition to participating in winter sports, we can also visit nearby scenic spots to further appreciate local customs and culture," Qiao said.With high-hanging lanterns and paper-cutting pastings on windows, the Sun Mountain Yabuli resort welcomed visitors from all over the country. According to the resort, some clients even booked five months in advance."We have 17 ski trails of all kinds and different levels here at our resort. With a maximum slope of 40 degrees to a minimum one of six degrees, we can meet the needs of skiers of all levels," said Sun Nianwei, director of the marketing and sales department.At a recent ice and snow tourism forum, Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, pointed out that ice and snow tourism has revitalized traditional folklore and created a number of more modern, dynamic, and fashionable tourism destinations and consumption scenarios.Driven by the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, ice and snow tourism has gradually gained popularity among Chinese people. A report on China's snow and ice tourism development predicts that the number of snow and ice leisure travelers in China is expected to exceed 300 million in the 2022-2023 snow and ice season. The number is expected to reach 520 million in three years, and the related tourism revenue will reach 720 billion yuan (about 106.1 billion U.S. dollars).With 300 million people participating in winter sports, in order to further stimulate people's enthusiasm, the central government has mentioned promoting the ice and snow industry and building ski tourism resorts in several planning documents. Northeast, north, and northwest regions with abundant ice and snow resources have introduced corresponding policies.North China's Hebei Province, one of the host places of the Beijing Winter Olympics, has proposed strengthening the use of Winter Olympics venues, accelerating the improvement of infrastructure and supporting services, and cultivating new consumption growth points in competition performances, venue services, sports training, and sports tourism, among others.As one of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games venues, Genting Snow Park opened the U-shaped field, Moguls, and five other tracks to the public, to meet the desire of snow enthusiasts, while other local ski resorts have launched multiple activities to attract tourists."We hold different theme activities here every day, such as Spring Festival gala, dragon and lion dance, and band performance, so that visitors can both enjoy skiing and have a special Spring Festival holiday," said Ren Xiaoqiang, marketing center manager of a local company.Dai Bin believed that the popularization of winter sports in the country opened a new era for China and even for the world. He suggested cultivating a number of enterprises in the field of ice and snow equipment production, cultural creativity and specialized tourism. 編輯：高佳?
