Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Guests attending the opening ceremony of the 9th Asian Winter Games arrived at the Sun Island Hotel in Harbin of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Friday noon for a banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan.

Arriving for the banquet were Brunei's Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and his wife Aigul Japarova, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, South Korean National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and his wife Shin Kyung-hye, President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach, and Vice President of the Olympic Council of Asia Timothy Fok Tsun-ting.

The 9th Asian Winter Games, scheduled for Feb 7-14, will bring together more than 1,270 athletes from 34 countries and regions, making it the largest edition in terms of participating delegations and athletes.

The opening ceremony of the Games is to unfold on Friday night.

Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Chinese stocks closed higher on Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.96 percent to 4,152.57 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.66 percent higher at 15,856.61 points.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 2.1 percent to close at 4,021.16 points on Monday.

Chinese shares close higher Monday