Northeast China’s Jilin launches additional ice-snow holiday tailored for students

Northeast China’s Jilin Province, which is abundant in ice and snow resources, will launch a unique “ice and snow holiday” particularly tailored for all primary and middle school students from December 3 to 7, offering free winter sports experiences and cultural tourism discounts to encourage youth participation in ice-snow activities.

The five-day break, in addition to the usual winter and summer break, will create more time for students to enjoy winter sports and activities.

During the five-day break, all students in primary and middle schools across the province will be off campus with no classes or written homework assigned.

Local governments will roll out limited-time incentives, including free entry for students and ticket discounts for accompanying parents.

During the break, students can enjoy three hours of free skiing or skating daily at designated venues with valid identification such as an ID card or household registration booklet.

They will also enjoy free visit to A-level scenic spots that only open in winter.

Accompanying parents can receive 30 percent off ski passes and first-gate tickets for A-level scenic spots when scanning a QR code on site, with a maximum discount of 300 yuan (about 41.3 U.S. dollars) per ticket.

“We have organized 39 ski resorts and ice rinks with operation qualifications, as well as 171 A-level tourist attractions, more than 80 museums, art galleries and cultural centers, to participate in this ‘ice and snow holiday’ program. We invite students and their parents to experience ice-snow tourism, ice-snow culture and ice-snow equipment,” said Jin Zhenlin, Deputy Director-General of Jilin Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

Meanwhile, enterprises and public institutions are encouraged to adopt flexible paid leave arrangements, allowing parents to take staggered or split vacations to accompany their children. Unused leave may be carried over to the next year.

In order to further stimulate enthusiasm towards snow and ice sports among the young people, Jilin Province will also launch a series of other sports programs.

“We will systematically host youth ice-snow events that cover multiple dimensions such as competitions, hands-on experiences and training, attracting more young people to participate in them, and promoting popularization and development of ice-snow sports,” said Li Chongsheng, director of the Youth Sports Division, the Jilin Provincial Sports Bureau.

China and France share a common approach to viewing the world through cooperation rather than confrontation, said former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who called for deeper cultural, economic and third-country collaboration.

Speaking in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Changsha City, central China’s Hunan Province, Raffarin stressed that bilateral cultural cooperation has long served as a model and continues to offer strong momentum for both countries to develop broader relations.

He highlighted that cultural exchanges, people-to-people bonds and creative industries are an essential foundation for strengthening mutual trust.

“I believe that cultural cooperation between China and France can indeed serve as a model that we can further develop. In particular, I’m thinking of everything related to co-productions. This morning we heard a very beautiful presentation from the president of the National Center for the Performing Arts, a magnificent opera house designed by French architect Paul Andreu, where numerous cultural and artistic collaborations between China and France are flourishing. Our goal is to ensure that we expand these forms of cooperation in third countries, which I believe is a very positive strategy,” said Raffarin.

In recent years, China and France have expanded their comprehensive strategic partnership, scaling up cooperation from culture and aviation to energy, health and sustainable development.

According to Raffarin, the evolving international landscape makes it more urgent for the two countries to explore new channels for cooperation beyond their bilateral sphere.

“We should have China-French cooperation in third countries. We have cooperation in the field of nuclear energy with the Chinese in the UK, a neighboring country of France. I believe that when we have solid partnerships in aeronautics, transportation, agri-food, health and other cooperation fields, it would be very important to develop our cooperation in third markets. This is a new component of our cooperation, which opens up new prospects. From this perspective, culture is a very fertile area in terms of initiative and creativity for launching joint projects,” the former prime minister noted.

Building on existing cooperation, Raffarin said France and China should jointly develop more French-Chinese products and solutions with global markets in mind.

He noted that in a world facing rising uncertainties, partnership-based development, rather than unilateralism or confrontation, is the path that aligns with both countries’ long-standing diplomatic philosophies.

“In the past, trade meant selling products to friendly countries — Chinese products were sold in France, and French products in China. That remains important today, but we are now thinking more of products jointly developed by China and French, which have strong potential for growth in third-country markets. I believe this represents a very significant direction for our cooperation — going together into third countries with which both sides maintain constructive relations, and, more broadly, viewing the world as one of cooperation rather than one of tension and confrontation,” he said.