Annual ice and snow festival to return

The news conference of the 2017 "Winter of Changbai Mountain" Ice and Snow Festival was held on Dec 11 at the Information Office of the Jilin Provincial Government.

Xu Jiqing, deputy major of Baishan city, Chen Shoujun, vice-director of Jilin Provincial Tourism Development Commission and Jiang Yuqi, head of Baishan Tourism Development Commission attended the event.

The conference introduces details of the festival. [Photo provided to ejilin.gov.cn]

The festival is planned as an important platform for Baishan to promote its image and tourism industry. It will also drive the green transformation of that industry.

The festival will last from Dec 20, 2017 to March 25, 2018 with seven major themed zones such as the Changbai Mountain ice and snow art zone, and sports and economic and trade zones, showing the city's rich ice and snow resources.

Xu Jiqing introduced four advantages of the city in developing an ice and snow industry at the conference: resource availability, industry clusters, traditions and traffic. Chen added his view that the area has a huge ice and snow industry market.

Xu Jiqing introduces four advantages of Baishan city. [Photo provided to ejilin.gov.cn]

The area enjoys rich ice and snow resources thanks to its long winter with annual snowfall reaching 400 millimeters. Local people have formed their traditions on ice and snow activities and ice and snow sports are well-developed here.

To make full use of local resources, the government has introduced a series of big tourism projects, creating an industry cluster effect. Changbai Mountain Resort, an elaborate project, is the largest ski resort in China, attracting thousands of visitors every day.

The local government has also worked hard to improve its traffic infrastructure. The area currently enjoys a convenient traffic system for serving visitors from around the world.

Jiang described some planned tourism products and routes.

In recent years, the ice and snow industry in Baishan has undergone fast development thanks to investment brought by the area's integration of different industries and marketing and promotional activities.

More important, the city is focused on people's participation in ice and snow activities so that the development fruits of the tourism industry can be shared by everyone.