Jilin embraces new snow season with various activities

WIth the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics drawing near, to further seize the opportunities presented by the Games, Jilin launched a new campaign on the occasion of the Games' 100-day countdown at end-October to attract more people to experience the charm of ice and snow in the province.

Also launched at the same time was a provincial plan to promote high-quality development of the local ice and snow industry for the period 2021-2035.

According to the plan, Jilin will build a more organic and coordinated "4+X" ice and snow industry.

"4" refers to ice and snow tourism, ice and snow sport, ice and snow culture, and ice and snow equipment. Among these four sectors, ice and snow tourism is expected to play a leading role.

"X" refers to a number of supporting sectors including ice and snow science and technology, ice and snow personnel, ice and snow commerce, ice and snow finance, and ice and snow transport. 

To promote ice and snow tourism, Jilin has set forth a slew of measures and goals in the plan: the province will build an international ice and snow tourism consumption center, the number of local ski resorts will be limited and the quality be improved following the principle of high-quality and intensive development, a number of ski resort complexes and ice and snow towns will be built and improved and some of them will be built into world-class ones, more winter health projects, ice-themed cultural and tourism projects and ice and snow rural tourism attractions will be developed, a number of tourism projects attractive all year round with distinctive leisure activities, culture and folk customs, will be luanched, etc.

In the 2019 snow season, Jilin attracted nearly 85 million ice and snow tourists, with close to 170 billion yuan generated in tourism income, said Jin Zhenlin, deputy head of the Jilin Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

To further develop the ice and snow industry, Jilin will focus on enriching and improving the fundamental functions of dining, accommodation, transport, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment in developing ice and snow tourism and culture, fostering market entities and enhance the industry's innovative capacity; ensuring capital, personnel, information, land, market and management; and giving play to the government's role in accelerating personnel training and improving infrastructure, Jin added.

Guided by the plan and with the opportunities presented by the Beijing Winter Olympics, Jilin is ramping up efforts for the new snow season.

The Lotus Mountain Ski Resort in Changchun, as one of the shooting sites for the Beijing 2022 torch relay short film,"A Date with Snow and Ice," has attracted a lot of tourist attention.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for tourism has been dampened for the last two snow seasons, and expectations for the new season is high on both the supply and demand sides, said Yang Andi, head of the Jilin Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

For the new season, Jilin will highlight the Winter Olympics, give full play to the market and ensure adequate services. Tourists can enjoy Winter Olympic events in Jilin. And Winter Olympics brands and culture will be promoted in the province.

The province will also hand out consumption coupons and launch over 100 ice and snow activities such as the Changchun Ice and Snow Festival, Jilin Rime Festival and Chagan Lake Winter Fishing Festival to woo tourists.

In addition, public ice and snow entertainment and sports activities, especially Winter Olympics-themed ones, will be carried out throughout the snow season.

Apart from the government, ice and snow enterprises are also actively preparing for the new season.

The Vanke Songhua Lake Resort will launch the SKI Electric Carnival to present the charm of both ice and snow and music to visitors.

According to a staff member, the resort will offer more activities for the new snow season, planning to have a different theme for each month of the season. It also plans to launch 30 ice and snow cultural activities and professional competitions related to Winter Olympics.

Chen Qing, a tourist from Jiangmen, Guangdong, said, "I tried outdoor hot spring and hot pot served on a snow-covered outdoor place a few years ago. It is really an unforgettable experience. This year, I will take my child to snow and folk custom villages as well as some Winter Olympics-themed activities to experience the charm of ice and snow sport."

Jilin enjoys a unique climate and geographical position for developing ice and snow tourism. It has a long snowfall period and the amount of snowfall is big. The undulating mountains are also a plus. All these provide favorable conditions for the development of ski resorts. At present, the Vanke Songhua Lake Resort, the Beida Lake Ski Resort and the Changbai Mountain International Resort lead in the number of ski lifts and snow trails.

After years of exploration, Jilin now has an improved system of ice and snow tourism products, which generally includes four categories: leisure holiday, hot spring, sightseeing and folk customs.

According to a staff member, the Vanke Songhua Lake Resort has made a lot of efforts to improve visitor experience for the new season, including the number of snow areas, snow equipment, coaches, accommodation ability and accessibility. It has also expanded cooperation with neighboring cultural and tourism projects to let visitors better experience local folk customs.

The Changbai Mountain International Resort will launch colorful activities for the new season, and visitors can also experience winter fishing, hot pot served in a snow-covered place among other distinctive activities of Jilin.

In addition to these long-established projects, Jilin's new ice and snow tourism projects are also making meticulous preparations for the new snow season.

The Southern Jilin (Tonghua) Ice and Snow Industry Demonstrative Town project, for example, has attracted a great deal of attention from tourists with facilities built in the mountains and snow trails built down the mountainside.   

With a planned area of 12 square kilometers, the project features ice and snow sport, health programs and services for sports competition and will be completed in three phases.

The first phase, including a ski resort and hot spring hotel, will be put into operation in mid-December and is expected to receive 500,000 to 700,000 visitors by the end of next March.

To support this project, Tonghua has also built a tourism service center, which is also a ski museum, a skating center, and a ski jumping training center.