Jilin to focus on winter industry development

People ski at the Vanke Lake Songhua Resort in Jilin city, Jilin province. [Ling Xizheng/For China Daily]

City to capitalize on resources to turn itself into haven for ice tourism, sports

Jilin city in Northeast China's Jilin province will continue to channelize its rich snow and ice resources for economic growth by developing winter tourism, as well as winter sports, gear and facilities.

With its long, cold winters — usually from November to March — the city has the natural advantages and traditions of developing snow and ice tourism and sports. It has become known as "China's capital of rimes "and the nation's "paradise for skiers".

The winter season from late 2023 to early 2024 brought the city 23.4 million tourism visits, a 178 percent increase compared with the previous winter season. These visits generated a tourism-related revenue of about 47.1 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) during the winter season, up almost 200 percent year-on-year, said Hu Bin, Party secretary of Jilin city.

He said that under a recently released State-level guideline aimed at invigorating the winter economy, the city will keep depending on its rich snow and ice resources to develop winter tourism and winter sports, gear and facilities production, and continue its efforts to build up a modern winter industrial system for higher-quality economic development.

The guideline was released by the State Council, China's Cabinet, to generate a new growth point in the winter economy by integrating the development of winter sports, winter tourism and winter gear and facilities. Under the guideline, the nation's winter economy aims to reach a scale of 1.2 trillion yuan ($165.5 billion) by 2027 and 1.5 trillion yuan by 2030.

Hu said that the city will prioritize winter tourism development and transform itself into a world-class winter tourism destination.

"We hope travelers will have a good experience here and enliven the local economy. We've planned hundreds of activities focusing on skiing and rimes appreciation," he said, adding that the city has designed 20 traveling routes connecting some photo spots popularized by netizens and will diversify its cultural and creative products.

Hu said that Jilin city will not only emphasize the development of athletic winter sports, but also the popularization of winter fitness activities among local residents to encourage more people to become involved in winter sports.

As for professional athletic winter sports, the city will make every effort to bring in world-class, State-level and provincial winter games such as the 2024/25 FIS Freestyle World Cup — Moguls and Aerials, which will be held in Jilin in February.

It will also encourage Winter Olympics champions to cooperate with the city's schools and universities to help produce higher-quality coaches and winter sports athletes.

Hu said that the city will ramp up the expansion work of the city's two major ski resorts — Beida Lake and Songhua Lake ski resorts — and will build 50 outdoor ice rinks to give tourists and local residents better access to winter sports.

"Also, we will enhance talent training for winter sports development and improve the commercial environment so the winter industry can offer more job opportunities in areas such as accommodation, transport and photo shooting," he said.

The Party secretary added that including cultural elements in winter industry development is also of great importance, and the city will figure out some creative ways to blend natural snow views in tune with the city's traditions and cultures to impress the tourists.

Furthermore, Jilin will find resources and draw investments to build the city into a world-class winter industry base by applying cutting-edge technologies and providing facilities for the development of winter gear brands and a winter industry chain.

"The city plans to establish the province's first winter gear industrial zone. We will take advantage of our production capacity of carbon fibers and our strong chemical industry and R&D resources to produce more innovative winter gear," Hu said, adding that the city will introduce a batch of famous winter gear manufacturers and research institutes to better connect the industrial chains.