China is on a week-long Spring Festival holiday, the most important holiday of the year. With the continuously optimized COVID-19 prevention and control policies, cities nationwide have seen a consumption surge. 編輯：韓睿
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?
After a three-year lull, Thailand is welcoming back Chinese tourists to its golden beaches, striking temples and fancy shopping centers, expecting an influx of Chinese tourists to help restore its pandemic-battered tourism sector."This is the first trip we travel abroad since the outbreak of the pandemic. We are so excited and happy. We can feel we're so welcomed in Thailand," said Liu Lingling, who came from the city of Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province and planned to spend the Chinese New Year holiday in Thailand.Liu, whose family would head south to a seaside resort after a few days in Bangkok, was among the legions of Chinese tourists who chose Thailand as the destination for their first outbound travel since China's optimized COVID-19 strategy took effect on Jan. 8.On Jan. 9, the second day after the optimization, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and other senior officials welcomed the first group of Chinese tourists at the Suvarnabhumi Airport with flowers and gifts.The high-profile event reflected the importance Thailand placed on wooing back Chinese tourists to help boost the tourism industry and economic recovery, analysts said.In downtown Bangkok, the atmosphere of the Chinese Lunar New Year overspreads, with shopping malls decorated with Chinese New Year elements in an effort to cash in from an influx of Chinese tourists during the first "Golden Week" holiday after China optimized its COVID-19 strategy.At Chinatown on Bangkok's Yaowarat Road, 200 meters of the road are decorated with lights and lanterns of various styles to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year that falls on Jan. 22 this year, the start of the Year of the Rabbit, which Nutthaporn believed would be a year of vitality and prosperity."We have stockpiled food supplies for the Chinese New Year travel rush," which always attracts a lot of foreign customers, said Nutthaporn, a chef at a restaurant on Yaowarat Road."Chinese tourists are our main driver to the economy. They are back this year, and I think our business will run as good as before the pandemic," he said.Nutthaporn is not alone in his optimism. Airlines, hotels, restaurants and other tourism operators are looking forward to seeing more Chinese tourists this year."The return of Chinese tourists has raised hope for the recovery of tourism industry in Thailand and other countries around the world," said Wichai Kinchong Choi, senior vice president of the leading Thai Kasikornbank.Thailand's tourism sector will exhibit a faster recovery following the return of Chinese tourists, said Piti Disyatat, secretary of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Thailand, the country's central bank.The Thai economy will continue to gain traction with continued recovery in tourism and private consumption thanks to the return of Chinese tourists, Piti said.The Thai government is expecting 7 to 10 million Chinese tourist arrivals this year, with 300,000 coming in the first quarter.The Southeast Asian country welcomed more than 2.24 million international travelers in December alone, compared with only 428,000 for the full year of 2021, taking the total to 11.15 million in 2022, according to Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports.However, the data still lagged far behind a record of nearly 40 million international tourist arrivals registered in 2019, with Chinese tourists accounting for more than a quarter of the total arrivals."The pandemic has made us realize the importance of Chinese tourists, whose high spending power helped drive our economic growth," Chanapan Kaewklachaiyawuth, vice president of the Thai Chinese Tourism Alliance Association, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.Tourists from various countries and regions have come to Thailand, but the lack of Chinese tourists means the lack of vitality and growth momentum, Chanapan said.It may take time for a full recovery, and "we are excited to see the return of Chinese tourists," Chanapan said, expecting more Chinese tourists to come after China resumes outbound group tours next month."We have made a lot of preparation to welcome the return of Chinese tourists, including expanding the range of tourism products, offering more high-end products as well as improving the quality of goods and services," he said. 編輯：高佳
