The opening ceremony of the 11th Heilongjiang International Skiing Festival, China with %26ldquo;Voice of Snow, Heard by the Whole World%26rdquo; as its theme was held on December 12 in Ice City Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, representing the opening of all large-sized ski fields in the province. An International Ski Tourism Regional League was established by China, South Korea and Russia in the Skiing Festival, symbolizing further establishment of Heilongjiang%26rsquo;s status as one of the %26ldquo;International Ski Tourism Resorts%26rdquo;.
Yi Junqing, member of Standing Committee of CPC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee and Minister of Heilongjiang Publicity Department, pressed the start button of the opening ceremony after announcing the opening of the Skiing Festival. Cheng Wendong, former Vice Chairman of China National Tourism Administration, and Sun Yao, Lieutenant Governor of Heilongjiang province addressed at the opening ceremony. Leaders from Heilongjiang province and Harbin city including Liu Haisheng, Tao Xiaxin, and Zhang Shaoliang attended the opening ceremony and evening party.
Cheng Wendong celebrated the successful opening of the Skiing Festival in the address on behalf of CNTA. He said, after 30 years of development since the reform and opening up, tourism industry had become an important industry and a new economic growth point in China, and China was at present ranking among the world%26rsquo;s tourism powers. During the historic development, Heilongjiang made important contributions to the development of ice and snow tourism. He hoped that Heilongjiang would continue to make efforts to promote the development of China%26rsquo;s ice and snow tourism, especially that of the ski tourism.
Sun Yao said in his address, Heilongjiang Province was the largest ice and snow sport base, and also an ice and snow tourism resort. The skiing industry of Heilongjiang developed rapidly these years with the supports from all walks of life. In 1996, the Asian Winter Games was successfully held by Heilongjiang, and the Winter Universiade will also be held in Heilongjiang in 2009. Sun hoped that through cooperation with the guests participating in the Skiing Festival, Heilongjiang may raise its skiing industry to a new stage and may contribute more to China%26rsquo;s bid for Winter Olympic Games.
Heilongjiang is a province with the most abundant ice and snow tourism resources in China. In winter, it is like a beautiful picture with vast snow fields. Supported by the abundant tourism resources, Heilongjiang originated the first festival activity in China with skiing as its subject in 1998, i.e. Heilongjiang International Skiing Festival, China. Starting from scratch, the ski tourism has become a symbol Brand with increasing exaltation in the scale and quality. The reception person times of ski tourists in Heilongjiang has kept on increasing at a double-digit (or more) rate in 11 successive years, amounting to 14.5 million person times. Successful holding of the Skiing Festival has not only promoted the development of the ski tourism industry in the province but also piloted the public ski activities in China, but also provided precious experience for other provinces to develop ski tourism and improved the vigorous development of China%26rsquo;s ski tourism industry.
The Skiing Festival of this year attracted many visitors from home and abroad. More than 1, 000 guests, including ambassadors of Nigeria, Liberia, Nepal and Turkey in China, officers from the frontier region of Khabarovsk, Russia, the United States, Japan and Chung Cheong Buk Do of South Korea, Chinese and international tourism businessmen and investment study groups as well as medium reporters from abroad and reporters inside and outside the province, attended the opening ceremony. %26ldquo;Voice of snow, Heard by the Whole World%26rdquo;, the theme of the Skiing Festival, was expressed in the opening ceremony, which featured the ice and snow as well as the skiing tourism culture of Heilongjiang with grand scale and elegant artistic forms. Well-known domestic players gave fetching performances at the ceremony, which offered fine entertainments for the skiing pageant.
It is reported that, by taking advantage of the 2009 Winter Universiade to be held in Harbin, this Skiing Festival will also start up the International Ski Tourism Regional League to hold such colorful activities as %26ldquo;Enjoying the Winter, Swimming across Longjiang%26rdquo; and the Final of 2009 International Tourism Lady in Heilongjiang completion area in addition to nearly 40 ski competitions in professional level, fever level and common level in different systems, different ages and different subjects so as to attract the world%26rsquo;s attention to the ski industry of Heilongjiang province.
