Cold comfort

The country's northeast builds on winter tourism, as a legacy of the 2022 Games, report Liu Mingtai in Changchun and Zhou Huiying in Harbin.

The New Year arrives in Northeast China with really cold days and nights, but it's also peak season for winter tourism of both conventional and unconventional sorts.

In this season, the provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, for instance, are working hard to expand activities in the wonderlands of ice and snow, where conventional activities include skiing and unconventional ones include art extravaganzas, featuring ice sculptures.

The 2022 Winter Olympics were held in Beijing and nearby Hebei province, also in the country's north, in early 2022.

In the region, Jilin has kept its focus on building a snow-and-ice industrial system combining tourism, sports, culture and equipment manufacturing. The construction of "ice-and-snow sports towns" and ski resorts of large and medium sizes also continues, with the aim of attracting more tourists to the province to experience winter fun, according to the local government.

Over the past five years, the province has developed an ice-and-snow industry in "Jilin style" and seen achievements in innovation, policy guidance, "breakthrough ideas", cultural confidence and the cultivation of talent, said Mu Dapeng, director of the provincial sports bureau.

"During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), Jilin will give prominence to building a 'new highland' for the innovation and development of the ice-and-snow industry in China."

According to a provincial development plan, by 2025, the monetary size of its ice-and-snow industry is expected to reach 250 billion yuan ($35.8 billion). The province will aim to complete the construction of 100 ski resorts and a large ice-and-snow sports resort as one of the major areas that can engage 300 million people in winter sports in the country.

Now, the province has some 75 ski resorts, with a total of 319 ski slopes, which can handle up to 100,000 people a day, making Jilin the skiing hub of the country. Data from the provincial culture and tourism department showed that during the 2021-2022 snow season, the online sale of ice-and-snow products in Jilin was the most in China.