Ice, snow hot commodities in Jilin

Officials plan to build world-class winter sports tourism destination.

The city of Jilin in Northeast China is going to great lengths to develop its ice and snow industry, which has the most solid foundation and the biggest potential of all the city's advantaged sectors, local officials said.

They said Jilin wants to become a world-class ice-snow tourism destination known for the brand "capital of rime (frost), skiing paradise".

During its 150-day snow season, the city in Jilin province received more than 25.9 million visits; its tourism revenue in the period surpassed 44 billion yuan ($6.56 billion).

Because of the seasonal resources, the city has carved out a new path for high-quality development as its focus shifted from the chemical industry to the ice-snow sector.

Wang Tingkai, the city's Party chief, said: "We plan to build Jilin into a city that has strength in winter sports, is known for ice-snow tourism and develops the ice-snow industry well."

Jilin is located in the golden icesnow latitude zone along with the European Alps and the Rocky Mountains in North America. The total trail area of its 12 ski resorts exceeds 3.56 million square meters and the total trail length is nearly 100 kilometers.

The Qingshan ski resort, predecessor of Lake Songhua Resort, ranks the first nationally in terms of the trail area. The Beidahu Ski Resort has hosted all the snow competitions at the sixth Asian Winter Games and three sessions of National Winter Games and boasts the conditions for holding all snow competitions of Olympic Winter Games and related world championships.

Jilin Stadium is a large comprehensive sports venue that can hold 10,000 people and has hosted big competitions such as the national figure skating championship.

Liu Fei, mayor of Jilin, said that the city should focus on the whole industry chain of ice and snow and pay further attention to related tourism, culture, sports, manufacturing and training of professionals to boost the ice and snow economy.

Taking the opportunity of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Jilin has set up a leading team for developing the ice and snow industry and also a special fund for the sector.

Centering on three winter tourism resources - frost, ice and snow and hot springs, the city has organized colorful sports events for months, including an international frost and ice-snow festival, an international ice-snow photographic exhibition, an international winter dragon boat regatta, a national winter swimming competition and a national ice hockey league.

Due to the unique charm of icesnow resources, a large amount of social capital has been attracted. Beidahu started 15 major projects such as hotels and apartments in 2018, with the total investment worth 3.16 billion yuan.

The city now promotes winter sports through publicity campaigns, as well as by training teenagers and holding professional competitions. Jilin Beishan Four Season Skiing Park, an all-weather standardization skiing training ground, has recently been training young athletes on its 1,308-meter trail.

Athletes can get training in the park throughout the year, which increases their preparation time for the Olympic Games, said Liu Yijun, director at the Jilin ice-sports center.

Gai Dongping, vice-mayor of Jilin, said encouraging people to participate in winter sports starts with childhood. The city has spent more than 10 million yuan implementing a project for promoting ice-snow sports among primary and middle school students in the 2018-19 snow season, Gai said.

Professional ski instructors taught 75,000 students during the season and there were 75 provincial ice-snow feature schools.

To promote ice hockey, the city has set up 15 primary and middle school ice hockey teams and is home to eight youth ice hockey clubs, Gai said.

Wang Xiao, a ski enthusiast from Shanghai, likes skiing in Jilin: "The city's ski resorts have good conditions including snow quality. It snowed heavily just in March and I came to enjoy myself to the full," Wang said, adding she skied there for almost half a month during each snow season in the past three to four years.

Beidahu Ski Resort, a favorite of Wang, has 26 trails, offering not only broad and flat space to beginners but also tracks with different slopes that can be used for world-class competitions.

During the 2018-2019 snow season, the Beidahu resort saw its tourism revenue reach 170 million yuan, a year-on-year rise of 43 percent. Lake Songhua Resort, only 15 kilometers away from the city's main urban area, saw its tourism revenue rise to 223 million yuan in the same season, a year-on-year increase of 37 percent.

In virtue of ice and snow resources, Jilin also promotes related equipment manufacturing, science and technology and professionals. It has built an ice-snow equipment industrial park, which has attracted several upstream and downstream companies such as ski parts and ski suit production businesses.

The city also intensified cooperation with Beijing Sport University to promote construction of an icesnow scientific research center. Beihua University in Jilin has set up the ice-snow school to train professionals.

In the near future, the city will focus on building the Beidahu skiing town, which is expected to receive 4 million ski and tourism visits annually. It will help bring Jilin one step closer to its goal of becoming a world-class ice-snow tourist destination, local officials said.

The Beidahu Ski Resort in the city of Jilin is a popular venue among winter sports enthusiasts.Provided To China Daily