Feature: snow season off to lively start in northeast China

People are having fun with snow dragon boat in Harbin. (Photo courtesy of Heilongjiang Sports Bureau)

After the successful holding of Beijing 2022, people are actively participating in ice and snow sports as the new snow season kicked off.

HARBIN, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- The outdoor temperature was nearly minus 20 degrees Celsius, but it didn't stop Pan Zilin, a tourist from Guangdong Province, and his friends from enjoying themselves on the frozen river.

"It was interesting to walk on the river. I didn't believe it until I swept the snow away and saw the frozen river underneath. Now I want to play snow all the time," he said. With snow on his jacket, Pan dragged the snow circle to the top of the snow slope.

The area where Pan played is located in the Ice and Snow Carnival park on the Songhua River in Harbin of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, where people can experience a variety of games on the snow such as snow slide, snow tanks and snow bikes.

The opening ceremony of the ninth National Mass Ice and Snow Season takes place in Harbin on December 24, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Heilongjiang Sports Bureau)

The opening ceremony of the ninth National Mass Ice and Snow Season was held in Harbin on Saturday and will continue until April 2023. In the first snow season after the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, enthusiasm for winter sports was once again ignited.

At the opening ceremony of the Jilin branch venue, the organizers stage popular events such as snow football, snow frisbee and snow diabolo with more than 600 fans from all over the country coming together to share the joy. The Ice and Snow Carnival was also held in Qitaihe city, Heilongjiang, which has a profound tradition of winter sports and many short track speed skating world champions were cultivated there.

The National Mass Ice and Snow Season has been held for eight years and this year's Beijing Winter Olympics has made it all the more popular.

Kids are learning snowboarding at a ski resort in Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang Province. (Photo courtesy of Longjiang Forest Industry)

"After Beijing 2022, it was obvious that people's enthusiasm for skiing increased. This feeling is more obvious in winter," said skiing lover Zhang Chupeng, who has purchased a quarterly season pass at the "BONSKI" Indoor Ski resort in downtown Harbin. "When winter comes, I want to go skiing every day."

On December 8, the 20th Yabuli Ski Festival officially opened in the famous Yabuli resort in Harbin while at Pingshan Shenlu Ski Resort in Acheng some 70km north of Harbin, facilities that have been repaired and tested for safety have also been put into trial operation, with 800 pairs of skis added to meet the needs of tourists.

The successful holding of Beijing 2022 not only achieved the new glory for China in the field of winter competitive sports, but also successfully engaged more people from north and south China to participate in ice and snow sports. As of October 2021, 346 million people participated in ice and snow sports in China, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.