In #EUChinaTourismYear - #HarbinIce&SnowTourism came to Brussels

A high-level delegation of Chinese tourism officials presented a vision of China’s winter sports offering to a wide range of visitors at a recent event at the China Cultural Centre in Brussels. The delegation, from city of Harbin in Northern China, presented the renowned snow and ice cultural tourism for which Harbin is justifiably proud.

The assembly of invited guests was shown a stunning promotional video which showcased Harbin’s specialties of winter tourist activities, with an abundant source of ice and snow.

Harbin is the most popular tourist destination in China in the winter season, its average winter temperature is around -15℃, with a long snowfall period, moderate snow volume and good snow quality, which brings the advantage of developing snow tourism.

Harbin International Ice & Snow Festival is one of the world's four largest ice and snow events, held on 5 January every year.

The Ice Light Art Park, Snow World, Sun Island Snow Expo, Wanda Ice Lantern World, Hulan Estuary Snow Joy World and Yabuli Skiing makes Harbin the world's richest ice and snow tourism products.

The evening was hosted by Harbin Foreign Affairs Office Vice Director Cao Ru, who addressed the invited guests: “It is my great honour to represent my city and preside in this promotion conference today. After being entrusted by Sun Zhe, the mayor of the Harbin municipal government, our Harbin ice and snow tourism promotion delegation is pleased to come to Belgium and host this evening’s promotion.”

The main speaker of the evening was Yan Honglei, the director of Harbin Tourism Development Committee.

“In the context of China's 'Belt and Road' co-operation, Harbin, as the central city in the hinterland of Northeast Asia, is striving to strengthen exchanges and co-operation with countries in European Union,” said Honglei.

“Harbin enjoys geographical locations connecting Northeast Asia, Europe and the Pacific, together with four distinct seasons, ice, snow, forests, wetlands, music, architecture and other resources to promote the ice and snow culture and tourism city, China's first-class ecological leisure and holiday destinations, China's ice and snow tourism preferred destination image to the world.

"In 2017, the city received 77.12 million tourists and the total tourism revenue was 117.747 billion yuan.”

“In this conference, we introduce Harbin ice and snow, summer vacation, history and culture, music and other tourism products to European friends. At the same time, we introduce Harbin's unique all-season tourism resources and the annually-held Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival,” added Honglei.

“There is an old saying in China, 'seeing is believing'. I sincerely invite all the friends who participate in today to visit Harbin and experience the unique scenery in your life! I hope that more European tourists could learn about Harbin through your experience and get to love Harbin! The hospitable Harbin people are looking forward to your visit!”

The final speaker of the evening was the executive president of the Winter Games Association International, Liu Qin: “Since China has successfully declared the 2022 Winter Olympics in 2015, the ice and snow industry of China has achieved tremendous development. In 2018, the Chinese government has published the White Paper of China's Ice and Snow Industry, and according to the relevant plans of the State Sports General Administration of China, the overall scale of China's ice and snow industry will reach 1 trillion Yuan by 2025 ($15bn), which is equivalent to one-fifth of the overall size of China's sports industry. It indicates the huge business potential and opportunities related to the ice and snow industry,” said Qin.

“The 2022 Winter Olympics and China's vigorously policy of developing the ice and snow industry have ushered in a new economic growth point in Harbin, a northern city with high-quality ice and snow resources. Harbin's ice and snow resources are extremely rich. The snow quality in Harbin is excellent, and the viscosity of the snow is much higher than other cities in China. In some area, the duration of accumulated snow can last even for more than seven months, and the amount of snow is the highest in China.

"In addition, Harbin represents fundamental infrastructure for snow sports and ice and snow tourism. For example, the Yabuli Ski Resort, has hosted the 3rd Asian Winter Games, the 24th World University Games and many other international and domestic winter sport events. Recently, Harbin has become the best destination for snow and ice tourism in China and surrounding countries.

"I sincerely hope that our distinguished guests and friends from the tourism and cultural industries will understand more about the city Harbin through today's Conference. And I invite you to experience the ice and snow tourism, combined with the special Chinese culture, in Harbin. Our International Winter Sports Association hopes to provide more co-operation opportunities and communication platforms for the co-operation between China and Europe in the ice and snow industry through this promotion.”

Welcoming the Chinese delegation was Pierre Coenegrachts, the CEO of the Walloon Brussels Region Tourism Bureau.

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