Winter wonderland opens in Shangri-La's national park

A winter wonderland has opened to the public amid the stunning scenery of forests in Shangri-La, southwest China's Yunnan Province, offering locals and tourists a unique winter experience.

The venue lies in the Potatso National Park, a world heritage site renowned for its diverse ecosystem of lake wetlands, forest meadows, river valleys, streams, and rare flora and fauna.

Amidst breathtaking scenery, visitors were enjoying themselves by tubing, sledding and tobogganing down a snow-covered slope, making snowman, and taking photos for each others.

"As a southerner we don't get to see much snow where we live. This is my first time in Shangri-La, and these ice and snow activities are so much fun," said Shi Yunyan, a visitor from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

"We aim to introduce more visitors to our ice and snow culture and the joy of winter sports through diverse activities," said Feng Jianhua, general manager of Potatso Tourism Company.

In recent years, the park has diversified its tourism offerings, creating recreational activities such as camping, hiking, coffee, hotpot boiled with ice tube and Tibetan costume photography to cater to different interests.

The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Thursday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.91 percent to 98.054 at 15:00 (1900 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.1729 dollars from 1.1682 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound rose to 1.3583 dollars from 1.3483 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 156.49 Japanese yen, lower than 160.32 Japanese yen in the previous session. The U.S. dollar was down to 0.7819 Swiss francs from 0.7907 Swiss francs, and it decreased to 1.3612 Canadian dollars from 1.3681 Canadian dollars.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 9.2354 Swedish kronor from 9.3074 Swedish kronor.