Heilongjiang eyes ice-and-snow boost ahead of 9th Asian Winter Games

HARBIN, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- With nearly 100 days to go before the 9th Asian Winter Games, the host province of Heilongjiang, China's northernmost province, has unveiled its plan for this year's ice-and-snow season and announced a slew of preparations for better receiving international visitors.

The games are scheduled from Feb. 7 to 14, 2025, in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang. On Friday, Heilongjiang launched a 100-day winter tourism initiative, aiming to establish itself as a world-class ice-and-snow tourism destination.

"Most overseas visitors to Heilongjiang make Harbin their first stop. So we have set up an international tourism distribution center in the city's Central Street, which integrates the functions of travel consultation, specialty commodities display, luggage storage and guidelines on key scenic spots," said Yu Feng, deputy director of the provincial department of culture and tourism.

The province has set up 1,391 POS machines accepting foreign bank cards, 70 foreign currency exchange points and ATMs in hotels above the three-star level, and tourist attractions above the 4A level, to ensure the convenience of payment for inbound tourists, Yu said.

Meanwhile, key scenic spots in the province are providing both English and Russian interfaces for online bookings. The scenic areas have prepared multilingual signage, and encouraged tourist and service staff to improve their foreign-language skills.

Heilongjiang's winter tourism made headlines last season, with Harbin as a top destination, boosting domestic spending and fueling local market growth.

In Harbin, the famed Ice-Snow World theme park will span a record 1 million square meters this winter, up from 810,000 square meters last year.

Wang Hongxin, director of the Harbin department of culture and tourism, told a press conference on Friday that in addition to the theme park, the city plans to build more than 500 ice-and-snow sports venues this winter, in locations including on the Songhua River, in the city's urban parks and open spaces, and on campuses and playgrounds. The venues will allow both the public and tourists to enjoy ice-and-snow leisure and entertainment, such as skating, curling and ice hockey.

A wide array of ice-and-snow sculptures will appear on main streets, airports, railway stations and major public squares to better illuminate the city's ice-and-snow world.

The province welcomed 120 million tourists and received approximately 171.2 billion yuan (about 24.11 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue between November 2023 and February 2024, marking a record-breaking 222.22 percent increase in visitors and a 553 percent surge in revenue year on year.

The 9th Asian Winter Games, which is expected to see record participation, with over 1,500 athletes from 34 countries and regions registered so far, has been eyed by Heilongjiang as an important driver to further unleash its ice-and-snow economic potential.