China's "Ice City" optimizes transport services to boost tourism

China's renowned "Ice City" of Harbin is ramping up efforts to strengthen and optimize its transportation services this winter as it aims to offer a better welcome to visitors from home and abroad and showcase its distinctive brand of ice and snow tourism.

The northeastern Chinese city is set for an extra busy winter as it gears up to play host to the 9th Asian Winter Games, which open on Feb 7 next year and is expected to bring in a further influx of visitors. This will also be the first major international ice and snow event hosted by China since the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

With all preparatory work progressing smoothly, there are also plenty of nods to the upcoming games seen all around Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province.

The special K5197 train, which departs from Harbin and heads to the popular ski resort of Yabuli Town some 170 kilometers away, features carriages decorated with ice and snow elements, as well as motifs of the Asian Winter Games.

Passengers on the train can also write their thoughts, feelings, or blessings on the snowflake-shaped postcards and stick them on the windows of the carriage, leaving a personal footprint of their journey.

"We've also prepared souvenir stamps for passengers to use and mark their trips, featuring the cute designs of the Asian Winter Games mascots, Binbin and Nini," said Gao Jie, a train conductor.

In addition, passengers can scan the QR code on the train with their phones to easily access information about the major local scenic spots, special foods, and train transfer times.

Ahead of the Asian Winter Games, the China Railway Harbin Group has launched additional train services connecting major tourist cities across Heilongjiang Province, including Harbin, Mudanjiang, and Jiamusi. These services also cover ski resorts for the games and popular lake tourism areas, providing travelers with more convenient transportation and enhancing their ice and snow tourism experience.

"We have increased the number of high-speed trains to Yabuli to 34, with more frequent departures than before," said Jiang Bing, a staff member in charge of passenger transport at the China Railway Harbin Group.

In addition, Harbin has also launched a special shuttle service for the Asian Winter Games, connecting the city's main bus station and the airport. Starting in January, the Harbin Taiping International Airport will increase its capacity to handle more flights, reaching over 60 flights per hour at the peak.

Along with improvements to transport services, Harbin has also offered tourist amenities like free Wi-Fi and rain and snow gear in its major tourist areas. Many businesses along the streets offer rest areas, hot tea and water, luggage storage, and other services for locals and visitors, with temperatures set to plummet well below freezing.

China's "Ice City" optimizes transport services to boost tourism

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight