Harbin airport welcomes foreign delegations for 9th Asian Winter Games

Harbin's Taiping International Airport, the designated entry and exit hub for the 9th Asian Winter Games, began to receive arriving foreign delegations with warm and attentive service on Friday.

The Kuwaiti men's ice hockey team arrived at the airport on Friday afternoon. They have been preparing for the Games since last September, including joining a winter training camp in the United Arab Emirates.

"Actually, they are happy to come in here and they are happy to be in Harbin," said Meshal Al-Ajmi, deputy head of the Kuwaiti delegation.

The Kuwaiti delegate expressed his gratitude for the services they received.

"Finally, I will say something. I would like to thank China to hosting this competition. Everyone and I thanks everybody who is working, and I know there are many people behind the stage, they work hard. For volunteers, everybody, I would like to thank them a lot, to make this competition in China. And also, I thank Harbin to give this competition and I hope everything will be good, because I trust people from China," Al-Ajmi said.

The reception personnel further introduced the improvements they have made to facilitate the athletes' transition.

"At Taiping International Airport, the Arrival and Departure Command Center has established a dedicated team, eight lanes for arrivals and departures -- four for arrivals and four for departures -- along with volunteers providing language services. Additionally, to address insufficient manpower, we have equipped our staff with translation devices to ensure timely comprehensive language service throughout the process," said Xuan Lisan, deputy head of the operations team at the Arrival and Departure Command Center.

The 9th Asian Winter Games will take place from Feb 7 to 14. The Games will feature six sports, 11 disciplines, and 64 events. This marks the third time that the Games will be hosted in China, following the events in Harbin in 1996 and Changchun, capital city of Jilin Province, in 2007.

Both the South Korean and Japanese markets buckled on Tuesday, the last trading day of March, witnessing equities plunge to their worst monthly downturn since October 2008.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Index ended down 1.58 percent to close at 51,063.72, bringing its cumulative loss in March to 13.2 percent.

The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 44.48 points, or 1.26 percent lower at 3,497.86.

In addition, South Korea's benchmark KOSPI plunged 4.26 percent to close at 5052.46, bringing its cumulative loss in March to 19.08 percent, the worst monthly performances since the 2008 global financial crisis.