簡介：HARBIN, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- What do Chinese people do during the Spring Festival holiday besides visiting relatives and friends? For the first winter after the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, a popular activity is ice and snow sports.Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has a cold winter climate and a deep history of ice and snow sports.During the Spring Festival holiday, there are always many cars parked on the snowy slopes of the roads in Harbin. People carry snow rings and can enjoy the whole day on the snowy slopes."I bought a snow ring last year. I come to play with my children during the Spring Festival holiday. There are also places to rent snow rings nearby," said Zhang Shuobin, a Harbin resident.For those who aren't keen on snow, skating is a suitable alternative. Whether it is the Songhua River that runs through Harbin, or the frozen lakes in the parks, it can become a paradise for ice skating lovers. In Harbin's Daixiu Lake Park, the frozen lake is designed to look like a rainbow as people glide along colorful slides.On the frozen Daixiu Lake, there are also several skating coaches training their students, and some children are playing with traditional ice spinning tops.In Harbin, there is no need to enter well-equipped stadiums to play ice hockey during the winter holiday. Hockey enthusiasts have set up small fields with homemade goals where six people can split into two teams on frozen rivers."Before the Spring Festival, my friends and I agreed to play ice hockey during the Spring Festival. The weather is very cold these days, but it can't stop us," said ice hockey fan Sun Tianfu.In the first winter after the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, enthusiasm for ice and snow sports not only lit up the streets of Harbin, but also lit up the local tourism market.The 500-meter-long slide at Harbin Ice and Snow World is very popular this winter, where there are long queues almost every day. The ice sports park built on the frozen Songhua River has become an unmissable attraction for tourists.Standing on the banks of the Songhua River, you can see all kinds of snow and ice recreational facilities, including snowmobiles, snowbikes, curling."The Beijing Winter Olympic Games has aroused people's enthusiasm for ice and snow sports, and the enthusiasm for these activities during the Spring Festival has not waned," said He Li, director of development and operation of Harbin Songhuajiang Ice and Snow Carnival.Yabuli ski resort has attracted skiers from all over the country this Spring Festival. "During the Spring Festival holiday, I wanted to go skiing in the mountains, so I came to Yabuli," said Qi Siteng from south China's Guangdong Province, who spent three days of his seven-day Spring Festival holiday in Yabuli.On the eve of the Spring Festival, a number of youth ice and snow sports competitions were held in Harbin, including the National Youth Ice Hockey Invitational Tournament, Ice and Snow Games for primary and middle school students and some snow football games."The Beijing Winter Olympic Games has not only promoted the development of competitive sports in China, but also aroused the enthusiasm of the Chinese people for ice and snow sports," said Qian Fuyong, director of the sports bureau of Heilongjiang Province. 編輯：韓橐
People visit Huangsi Temple Fair during the Spring Festival holiday in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, Jan. 23, 2023. Various activities were held here at the 6-day fair, starting from Jan. 22, to celebrate the Spring Festival. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)BEIJING, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Following the downgrading of China's management of COVID-19, people across the country are merrily celebrating the Spring Festival, one of the most important traditional Chinese festivals, with their families.In December 2022, China announced 10 new measures to lift COVID-19 restrictions. Wu Yating, living in north China's Shanxi Province, then decided to reunite with her husband in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.Two weeks before the Spring Festival, Wu, with her two-year-old child, arrived at the border area in Jingxi City, Baise, after traveling by plane and car. Wu's husband is a policeman at a frontier police station. Many border areas in China had implemented more stringent COVID-19 controls."We no longer need to show our digital itinerary codes and worry about being quarantined," Wu said, adding that her family had not been able to spend the Spring Festival together since their child was born in June 2020.Wu said that she plans to stay in Guangxi for a few more months to travel around, see the beautiful scenery and taste delicious local food."We haven't been infected with COVID-19 yet, but we have no fear of the virus since we have all been vaccinated and medicine can be bought in pharmacies at any time," she added.As a tourism hotspot, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, also known as the home of the hotpot, has seen a large number of tourists during the Spring Festival holiday.For 24-year-old Guo Zhenqian, from Nanyang City in Henan Province, it is his second time spending the festival in Chongqing. To him, the experience is completely different this time."In 2017, we drove nearly 12 hours from Nanyang to Chongqing. However, this time we took the high-speed railway and reached Chongqing's Wanzhou District in less than three hours," said Guo.The high-speed railway Guo took was opened in June 2022 and links Chongqing with Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan. Travel time between the two cities has been shortened from around 8 hours to 4 hours and 23 minutes at the top speed.Thanks to the new high-speed railway line and China's optimization of COVID-19 response measures, Guo got the chance to expand his tourism roadmap which includes a ski resort in Fengdu County, a themed tourism town in Fuling District, and the Three Gorges Reservoir area."With such a convenient transportation method, I just want to take full advantage of it and see more scenery. And I think lots of people have the same idea as mine. The train I took was stacked with people who want to travel in Chongqing, where the mountainous scenery is so different from central China," Guo added.Beijinger Liu Lu and her family will have a month-long vacation in Haikou, capital city of Hainan, a southern island province and a tourist hotspot.Haikou, as well as the city of Sanya in Hainan, are among the top 10 domestic destinations for the Spring Festival holiday, according to a tourism market forecast report released in early January."We try to shake off the busy life in Beijing and enjoy the cosiness and relaxation here," Liu said.Wu Lan, a tourist from northwestern Shaanxi Province, drove to Hainan with her family."Tourists are everywhere. We put on masks to protect ourselves wherever we go," she said, adding that she had bought many cosmetics at the duty-free shop and enjoyed the local food. 編輯：韓睿
