China sees surging number of skiers during Spring Festival holiday

China saw a surging number of skiers during the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday as the country’s ice and snow economy is growing exponentially, drawing an influx of participants in winter sports.

The latest data showed during the eight-day holiday, which ran from Jan 28 to Feb 4, 934 ski resorts across China saw over 17 million tourist visits, marking a 10-percent increase compared with the previous Spring Festival holiday.  

As the 9th Asian Winter Games helps promote the popularity of winter sports across China, the country’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province, where the Games’ host city Harbin is located, received over 2 million visits from skiers, increasing 13.5 percent year on year.

The southern part of China is also seeing skiing become a popular sport among winter tourists, with resorts in regions like Guangdong, Chongqing, Jiangsu, and Shanghai seeing their tourist volume increase by 79.4 percent, 37.8 percent, 33 percent, and 32 percent year over year, respectively.

“We came to the ski resort after the opening of the 9th Asian Winter Games. Because our kids love skiing, we, as parents, are willing to take them here so that they can have fun,” said a tourist visiting a ski resort located in north China’s Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. 

Winter sports of various kinds are also witnessing increasing popularity across the country.

A survey released by China Tourism Academy showed that over 70 percent of residents would like to participate in ice and snow leisure activities, ice and snow cultural events, and ice and snow tourism in winter. More than 50 percent of residents would like to increase spending on ice and snow events, according to the results.  

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in London on Thursday, marking the resumption of the China-UK Strategic Dialogue after a seven-year pause.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, co-chaired the 10th China-UK Strategic Dialogue, with the forum last being held back in 2018.

Following his trip to the UK, which came at the invitation of Lammy, Wang will pay a visit to Ireland and later attend the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany.