National public ice and snow season opens sub-venue in Heilongjiang

The opening ceremony of the 12th National Public Ice and Snow Season Heilongjiang sub-venue was held on Thursday in Harbin, the capital city of the northeast province.

The launch was held at the Harbin Songhua River Ice and Snow Carnival, a sprawling site that spans 1.45 million square meters.

This year's winter-long National Public Ice and Snow Season aims to encourage public participation in ice and snow sports through over 300 related events and competitions.

Dubbed China's Winterfell by netizens, Harbin has rolled out distinctive ice-and-snow-themed activities to attract visitors this season, including fun events like snow volleyball, parent-child sports meets, and ice dragon boat racing.

Technology adds another dimension to the events. Highlights include intelligent robots skating on ice and drones engaged in an intense aerial football match.

In Harbin, known as the birthplace of modern ice-snow sports in China where winter sports have seen their earliest and most comprehensive development, winter activities have become part of daily fitness routines for the public.

"There are more and more places for skating and skiing in our city of Harbin now -- from the Jiangbei Ice and Snow Carnival and the Harbin Ice-Snow World to many other spots, as well as numerous parks where we can exercise," said Li Guiming, a Harbin resident.

National public ice and snow season opens sub-venue in Heilongjiang

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) on Thursday lowered its key interest rates by 100 basis points, or 1 percent, the CBE reported.

The CBE said in a statement that its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to cut the deposit rate to 20 percent, the lending rate to 21 percent, and the rate of the main operation to 20.5 percent, while also reducing the discount rate to 20.5 percent.

"This decision reflects the committee's updated assessment of inflation dynamics and outlook since the previous MPC meeting," it said.

According to an earlier CBE report, annual urban headline inflation in Egypt eased slightly to 12.3 percent in November, down from 12.5 percent in October, driven by a slowdown in food price inflation, which declined to 0.7 percent in November from 1.5 percent a month earlier.

This marks the fifth interest rate cut by Egypt's central bank so far this year.

Egypt cuts key interest rates by 1 pct as inflation slightly down