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Chills and thrills

1
2016-03-07 09:01China Daily Editor: Qian Ruisha
The Ice and Snow Amusement World is a highlight of Harbin in winter.(Photo provided to China Daily)

The Ice and Snow Amusement World is a highlight of Harbin in winter.(Photo provided to China Daily)

Chinese travelers are warming up to winter. Domestic destinations where ice and snow take center stage hosted record visitor numbers following the first frost since the country won the Winter Olympics bid. 

Cold spots got hot this winter.

China's successful 2022 Winter Olympics bid has won the season a new place in Chinese hearts-and itineraries.

Record numbers of travelers became snow bunnies rather than snowbirds, and headed toward the nippy north rather than the steamy south.

All three of Northeast China provinces, and North China's Inner Mongolia and Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions-even Beijing's ski slopes-saw record crowds during the cold months.

Many made the trips from balmier, lower latitudes.

"Tourism related to ice and snow has sizzled this year," says Liu Sha, an account executive with the China CYTS Tours Holding Co's group tour center.

Skiing proved particularly popular.

It's what enticed Qin Jian from southern China's Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, to bring his 9-year-old son for six days in January in Harbin, capital of China's northernmost province, Heilongjiang.

"He loves skiing. But I'd only been able to take him to indoor facilities since it almost never snows where we live," Qin says.

"I wanted him to experience it in nature. He loves the sport more after the trip."

They skied on the frozen Songhua River and wandered among Harbin Ice and Snow Amusement World's ice sculptures and lanterns.

The father and son were among the record 1.1 million visitors of the site, said to be the world's largest of its kind, over the 70 days ending on Feb 29.

Liu says this winter saw significant increases in trips in which parents brought children. Southern regions served as primary sources of snow bunnies.

Northeastern destinations, such as Heilongjiang's Yabuli-celebrated for skiing-and Xuexiang, and the Changbai Mountains that span Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, ranked among the most popular, Liu adds.

Heilongjiang visits surged most-by more than a third-during February's weeklong Spring Festival holiday compared with last year's, the provincial tourism authority reports.

Heilongjiang expects 10 to 20 percent annual growth over the next five years, says the tourism authority's deputy director, Hou Wei.

Its Yabuli skiing area's visits surged nearly 68 percent to 84,000 during the festival. Spending leapt almost 130 percent to 44 million yuan ($6.7 million).

About twice as many festival travelers-116,000-descended on the farmhouses submerged in snow in Xuexiang in the province's north compared with the previous Spring Festival.

Harbin's Sun Island received about 138,000 visits during the holiday.

Heilongjiang's travel authorities attribute the quantitative shifts to qualitative causes.

"Attractions' improvements are a major fuel source for the boom," Hou says.

Ice and Snow World has increased its ice chutes' total to 32, including a 320-meter-long corridor that claims to be the world's longest.

  

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