China's Harbin to stage high-tech, culture-rich opening ceremony of Asian Winter Games

China's "ice city" Harbin is preparing to stun international audience with a technologically innovative and culturally rich opening ceremony of the upcoming 9th Asian Winter Games.

The annual continental sports event is slated to open on February 7 with a spectacular show at the Harbin International Conference, Exhibition and Sports Center.

The opening ceremony, centering around the official slogan of the Games, "Dream of Winter, Love among Asia," will highlight the concept of connecting Asian countries through ice and snow, creating new growth opportunities for winter economy, and promoting cultural exchanges between Asian countries.

With rehearsals for the opening and closing ceremonies underway, Sha Xiaolan, the chief director, told China Media Group (CMG) that the overall progress has been very smooth.

"Since we entered the venue in November, we have completed the building of the audio, light and electric equipment for the entire stage. After more than a month of work, our producing team and performers started on-site preparation. Generally, the rehearsals have gone smoothly, with modifications made for some parts. In the next step, we will hold more rehearsals to further polish the show, with the focus on further improving the interaction between multimedia images, performers and lightings," said Sha.

Sha and his creative team were responsible for the opening and closing ceremonies of major international sporting events, including the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023.

The experienced producers promised audience an audio-visual feast featuring the use of technologies and the innovative presentation of Harbin's cultural heritages and customs.

"Technologies enable us to organize a 'streamlined, safe and splendid' event. Without lifts or wires, we make the indoor venue a multidimensional space through AR [augmented reality], multimedia and other technological means, aiming to allow the audience to feel the beauty of ice and snow, the beauty of arts closely," said Wu Yan, chief producer of the ceremonies.

"We want to turn the venue into a super meeting room, presenting unlimited creativity in a limited space. In fact, the whole show, as I understand, is to transfer the extreme cold of Harbin's ice and snow into the extreme beauty, the extreme excitement of sports, and finally into the extreme enthusiasm of Asia. With the combination of technology and art, we package the local cultural characteristics of Harbin, such as the intangible cultural heritages and folk customs, in an international and fashion style, to present a large-scale show integrating performance, culture and tourism," said Leng Song, chief copywriter of the ceremonies.

A total of 1,275 athletes from 34 countries and regions, including Cambodia and Saudi Arabia for their Asian Winter Games debut, have registered for Harbin 2025. It is likely to have the most participants ever in the history of the event.

Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has a long-standing heritage in ice and snow sports due to its natural snowy conditions during the winter.

The city is going to host the Asian Winter Games for a second time. The first time was in 1996.

China's Harbin to stage high-tech, culture-rich opening ceremony of Asian Winter Games

The United Nations human rights chief on Saturday called for all parties to return to the negotiating table to solve the differences as the tensions in the Middle East region keep intensifying after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on the day.

Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the appeal in a video address recorded in Switzerland’s Geneva. He stressed that instead of resolving differences, military attacks will only result in destruction and civilian casualties.

"I deplore the military strikes across Iran this morning by Israel and the United States of America, and the subsequent retaliatory strikes by Iran. As always, in any armed conflict, it is civilians who end up paying the ultimate price. Bombs and missiles are not the way to resolve differences but only result in death, destruction, and human misery," he said.

He called on all parties to return to the negotiating table and stressed that negotiation is the only way to resolve differences.

"To avert these terrible consequences for civilians, I call for restraint and implore all parties to see reason, to de-escalate, and for a return to the 'negotiating table' where they had been actively seeking a solution only hours earlier. This is the only way durably to resolve the deep differences between states that exist," Turk said.

He underscored the importance of protecting civilians and warned that those who violate international law will be held accountable.

"I have already warned that failing to do so risks an even wider conflict that will inevitably lead to further senseless civilian deaths and destruction on a potentially unimaginable scale, not just in Iran but across the Middle East region. I remind all parties that international law with respect to armed conflict is very clear: the protection of civilians is paramount. Each and every actor involved needs to ensure compliance with these laws and violations of them must lead to accountability for those responsible," said Turk.

The United States and Israel on Saturday launched coordinated airstrikes against Iran, with the latter responding with a series of attacks on Israel and U.S. targets across the Middle East.

Increasing casualties are reported in Iran and other countries involved in the ongoing flare-up.

Iran's state media confirmed Sunday that its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Saturday.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that the strikes hit at least 24 of Iran's 31 provinces, with 201 deaths and 747 injuries reported so far.

UN calls for returning to negotiating table as U.S., Israel intensify attacks on Iran