Xi Jinping opened the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin, highlighting unity, winter sports growth, and economic impact.
Beijing, China, Feb. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin on Friday night during a festive ceremony highlighting the city’s ice and snow culture. The opening of the Games in Northeast China’s Harbin, Heilongjiang Province marked the holding of another major international event in China, after the 2022 Beijing Olympics and 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. In addition to the development of ice and snow sports, some analysts believed that through the grand winter event, China once again sent a message of unity and friendship to the world.
At the beginning of the opening ceremony, participating delegations entered the stage in alphabetical order at the Harbin International Conference, Exhibition and Sports Center.
The audience gave enthusiastic applause to the delegations of Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei as they entered the stage escorted by mascots Binbin and Nini during the athletes’ parade.
The atmosphere reached a climax when host China entered the ceremony last, with star speed skater Ning Zhongyan and young free skier Liu Mengting as the delegation’s flag-bearers, according to Xinhua.
A series of spectacular performances at the ceremony showcased both advanced technology and local artistic excellence with ice and snow themes.
Joined by children holding ice lanterns, China’s first Winter Olympic champion and short track speed skater Yang Yang, China’s first male Winter Olympic gold medalist and freestyle skier Han Xiaopeng, Olympic race walk champion Wang Zhen, and Sochi Winter Olympic speed skating champion Zhang Hong lit the cauldron in a shape of a blooming lilac flower at the Harbin Ice-Snow World, the world’s largest ice-and-snow theme park.
The Harbin Asian Winter Games, which serves as a valuable training opportunity for Asian countries and regions ahead of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, will run from February 7 to 14. The first gold will be decided on Saturday.
Pursuit for peace, unity
Before attending the opening ceremony of the Asian Winter Games, President Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan on Friday hosted a welcome banquet for international dignitaries attending the opening ceremony in Harbin, including Sultan of Brunei Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister of Thailand Paetongtarn Shinawatra, National Assembly Speaker of the Republic of Korea Woo Won-shik, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, and Olympic Council of Asia Vice President Timothy Fok Tsun-ting.
The theme of the Games – “Dream of Winter, Love among Asia” – embodies Asian people’s shared aspirations and desire for peace, development and friendship, Xi addressed the banquet.
He called on Asia to uphold the common dream of peace and harmony, jointly respond to all sorts of security challenges, and contribute to building an equal and orderly multipolar world.
He also stressed the shared pursuit of prosperity and development, calling on Asian people to work together to promote progress and development, and provide sustained momentum for a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.
To realize the common wish of friendship and affinity, Xi called for promoting inclusiveness, coexistence and mutual learning among diverse civilizations.
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Xi also underscored how the Games fostered global unity during challenging times.
The Harbin Asian Winter Games exemplifies this spirit of unity and cooperation, with Cambodia and Saudi Arabia making their debut at the event.
According to organizers, over 1,200 athletes from 34 countries and regions across Asia will compete, making this edition the largest in terms of participating delegations and athletes.
Against the backdrop of the growing populism and the hazardous tendencies of a fragmented world, the Asian Winter Games, a platform for enhancing mutual exchanges and understanding among Asian countries through sports, is of unique importance, said Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University.
In the face of uncertainty and turmoil, it is particularly crucial for Asia, as an important engine of global economic growth, to strengthen solidarity and cooperation among countries, Li added.
From the 2017 Sapporo Asian Winter Games and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games, the major international large-scale winter sports events have been held in Asia for four consecutive sessions.
Recently, some Western and Southern Asian countries lacking the appropriate natural conditions have gradually become involved in winter sports, indicating that ice and snow sports in Asia have huge space for development, but it is also more proof that the Asian Winter Games has increasingly became a gala for Asian people to gather beyond boundaries, said Ru Xiuying, director of the Olympic Research Center of Capital University of Physical Education and Sports.
The development of the Asian Winter Games showcases the practice of building a community with a shared future for mankind, Ru added.
“In the past two decades, China has hosted several major sporting events, providing the world with multiple opportunities to engage and exchange through sports, and inspiring more people from different regions to participate,” said Cao Yaqi, vice editor-in-chief of Titan Sports newspaper.
Thai curling athlete Chanatip Sonkham said she is delighted to participate in the Games in Harbin.
“I am very pleased with everything, including volunteers, staff, transportation and so on. I think the venue is really good,” she said.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach attributed the enthusiasm for the Harbin Asian Winter Games to the legacy of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
“You could see winter sport athletes from Qatar, from Kuwait, from Saudi Arabia. And in these countries, this excitement for winter sport is growing. This is how it should be that as many athletes in as many countries as possible are benefiting from this great legacy of Beijing 2022,” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Ice-and-snow fervor
On Friday, Xi also addressed the welcome banquet that the ice-and-snow fervor and related economy are becoming new engines of Harbin’s high-quality development and new pathways of its opening up, according to Xinhua.
The 9th Asian Winter Games highlights not only the positive transition of a heavy industrial city with frigid winters, but also China’s growing influence in global winter sports, some analysts said.
According to Xinhua, Harbin has welcomed 87 million visitors, or an increase of 300 percent year-on-year, generating 124.8 billion yuan in tourism revenue, a 500 percent increase. During the eight-day Spring Festival holiday that ended Tuesday, over 610,000 trips were made to the Harbin Ice-Snow World, the city’s landmark tourism destination known for its spectacular ice sculptures. Yabuli ski resort, which will host the snow events of the Asian Winter Games, welcomed over 1.17 million visitors in 2024.
“The Asian Winter Games in Harbin is an important platform for the sustainable and systematic advancement of China’s ice and snow sports in the post-Winter Olympics era,” Ru said.
The value of ice and snow sports is not only limited to competitive events. More importantly, it serves as an enabler to promote the integration of culture, sports and tourism and the overall development of China’s economy and society, the expert added.
People’s strong enthusiasm for ice and snow sports has recently become very clear. By April 2024, following the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, around 313 million Chinese people had actively participated in ice and snow activities.
Last winter, China recorded more than 385 million winter leisure visits, a 38 percent year-on-year increase, with related revenue rising 50 percent. China’s ice and snow economy is projected to exceed 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion) in 2025, with estimates reaching 1.2 trillion yuan by 2027 and 1.5 trillion yuan by 2030, according to Xinhua.
Harbin, dubbed China’s “ice city,” is the birthplace of the country’s modern winter sports. The city hosted the third edition of the Asian Winter Games in 1996.
Harbin was selected as the host city for the Games in July 2023, leaving it just 600 days to prepare for the event, compared to the traditional seven-year preparation period for a multi-sport competition.
Cao said that hosting the Games within such a short timeframe is unprecedented.
“All competition venues for the Harbin Asian Winter Games are existing facilities, making it the first time China has hosted a continental event without building new venues,” Cao said.
This article first appeared in the Global Times:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202502/1328043.shtml
Company: Global Times
Contact Person: Anna Li
Email: editor@globaltimes.com.cn
Website: https://globaltimes.cn
City: Beijing
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