China's mass winter sports season officially opens amid strong enthusiasm for ice, snow sports

The 12th National Mass Ice and Snow Season officially got underway on Tuesday with a colorful opening ceremony in Changchun of northeast China's Jilin Province, offering up an array of winter sports activities to visitors of all ages.

The event's opening ceremony featured a host of special performances and even had a truly global reach with International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry delivering her congratulations via a video message played on a giant screen.

The enthusiasm for winter sports is likely to be boosted this year with the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics set to get underway next month, and Tuesday's event in Changchun also drew on the star power of past Chinese champions.

Gold medal-winning speed skaters Zhou Yang and Wu Dajing were on hand in Changchun to jointly read out the "Initiative for Winter Sports," calling on the public to actively participate in ice and snow sports.

"We call on and encourage everyone to actively participate in winter sports. I believe that instead of staying at home in winter, we should head to ski resorts and ice rinks to feel the warmth brought by the sports amidst the cold," said Wu, who won a gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

"The event is getting better and better with more and more people participating, coming from all over the country. We can see people's enthusiasm for the ice and snow," said Zhou, who's also a Winter Olympics gold medal winner.

This year's mass winter sports drive is set to see over 2,000 mass ice and snow activities being held nationwide over the coming weeks, including a series of competitive events such as a national skiing skills qualifier and an urban cross-country skiing challenge.

Localities up and down the country will also create a series of branded ice and snow activities that draw on distinctive local features and are designed to be easy and accessible for greater public participation, enabling more people to delve into the fun of popular winter sports.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has also released a complete directory for ice and snow events taking place across China during the current winter season, aiming to boost travel and effectively transform these events into key consumption growth points.

China has in recent years positioned its ice-and-snow economy as a new engine of high-quality growth, especially since the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics stirred national enthusiasm for winter sports. The government has set a target for the ice-and-snow economy to reach 1.5 trillion yuan (over 210 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030.

China's mass winter sports season officially opens amid strong enthusiasm for ice, snow sports

China's two major power grid operators -- the State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid) and China Southern Power Grid (CSG) -- reported a surge in investment in the first quarter of 2026, underscoring efforts to strengthen infrastructure construction and support high-quality socioeconomic development in China.

The State Grid said it completed fixed-asset investment worth 129 billion yuan (about 18.77 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months of this year, up 37 percent the corresponding period of the previous year. The spending has driven more than 250 billion yuan (36 billion U.S. dollars) of investment across the wider industrial chain.

Key projects such as the Panxi ultra-high-voltage (UHV) alternating current (AC) line and the Anhui-Hubei back-to-back direct current (DC) project have seen ground broken for their construction, while several west-to-east power transmission projects have been upgraded.

Investment in connecting renewable energy generation to the grid was reported to have exceeded 10 billion yuan (1.45 billion U.S. dollars) from January to March, a year-on-year rise of more than 50 percent.

The CSG also reported robust growth in investment in the three-month period, with fixed-asset investment reaching 38.45 billion yuan (5.58 billion U.S. dollars), up about 50 percent from a year earlier.

Among its achievements, the company completed and commissioned 80 key projects, including the 220 kV cross-sea power grid interconnection project, which was officially put into operation on March 20. The project ended years of grid isolation on the Weizhou Island in south China by linking it to the main power system of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The construction of 17 other major energy projects, including one linking the power grid of the Xizang Autonomous Region in southwest China with that of Guangdong Province in south China, is advancing rapidly. These projects are expected to bolster regional industries, the maritime economy, digital collaboration and the transition to green energy.

"By accelerating major project construction, investment during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) is expected to approach 1 trillion yuan (145 billion U.S. dollars), driving a further 2 trillion yuan (290 billion U.S. dollars) of investment across upstream and downstream industries," said Dong Yanle, deputy general manager of the Engineering Construction Department under the China Southern Power Grid.

China ramps up power grid investment in January-March to boost growth