Growing enthusiasm for winter sports fuels tourism across China

As temperatures plummet across China, ski resorts and other winter sports facilities are heating up early this season.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has greatly boosted Chinese people's love for winter sports, bringing billions of people into the booming industry.

The mountainous areas of northwest China's Xinjiang's Altay Prefecture typically welcome hordes of ski enthusiasts and visitors each year, with its lengthy skiing season normally running from late October through to May.

Many of the resorts here have upgraded their facilities by building new terrain parks and adding trails to offer terrain variety and even better skiing experience to enthusiasts.

"The Beijing Winter Olympics has ignited a wave of enthusiasm for winter sports, and it was during that time that I fell in love with skiing. Skiing not only allows me to experience the speed and excitement of the sport but also offers the opportunity to enjoy breathtaking natural scenery," said a tourist named Zhou Haiting.

Since mid-October, Altay has received over 2.35 million visits, marking a year-on-year increase of more than 60 percent. It is expected to receive a total of 14 million tourist visits during the new snow season.

Ski resort operators in Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province, which hosted events during the 2022 Winter Olympics, said visitor numbers have been scaling the heights over the past few years, with a new record expected this year if weather permits.

"There is a relatively complete range of facilities available here, with both hotel accommodation and food service. There is also shuttle bus service. It's really very convenient for visitors," said a skier named Chen Jipeng.

In the warmer south, burgeoning ice and snow tourism is also gaining popularity, with indoor ski areas seeing more visitors come to enjoy the unique thrill brought by the winter sport.

In Taicang City, east China's Jiang Province, skiers come to an indoor ski areas to explore the piste where more training lessons are available this year to meet the needs of skiers with different levels of skills.

"Enthusiasm for winter sports has significantly increased since the Winter Olympics, and everyone is very interested in skiing. With ski facilities now available right at our doorstep, it has become incredibly convenient, bringing joy to our entire family," a tourist named Ma Boyao said.

Growing enthusiasm for winter sports fuels tourism across China

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Sunday that deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and Britain will meet on Friday for talks on bilateral as well as Tehran's nuclear issue, among other topics.

The spokesman made the remarks in a statement released by the ministry while pointing to Iran's principled policy based on interaction and cooperation with other countries.

Baghaei stressed that such interaction and cooperation should be based on "dignity, prudence and expediency," noting that the upcoming talks would be in continuation of the country's negotiations with them held on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York late September.

He said that a series of regional and international issues, including those of Palestine and Lebanon, in addition to the nuclear issue, would be discussed during the upcoming negotiations, recalling that the planning for the upcoming negotiations had been done in New York in the previous round.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, accepting restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions by the West. However, the United States withdrew from the agreement in May 2018, reinstating sanctions and prompting Iran to scale back some of its nuclear commitments.

The talks on the revival of the JCPOA began in April 2021 in Vienna, Austria. Despite several rounds of talks, no significant breakthrough has been achieved since the end of the last round in August 2022.

On Thursday, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution against Iran, which orders the country to improve cooperation with the agency urgently and requests a "comprehensive" report to press Iran into fresh nuclear talks.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran issued a joint statement on the same day, condemning the United States, Britain, France and Germany over their disruptive action of pushing the UN atomic watchdog to adopt a non-consensus resolution aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks, and pointing out that the Iranian nuclear issue is just an excuse for these countries to advance their illegitimate objectives.

Deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany, Britain to meet on bilateral, nuclear issues