Unique scenery formed on icy Dongping Lake

As temperatures continued to drop in east China's Shandong Province, the partly frozen surface of the Dongping Lake in Tai'an City has shown various spectacular ice shapes, creating a spectacular winter landscape.

Driven by wind forces, ice floes collided and stacked upon one another, forming unique naturally frozen sculptures on the vast lake.

The phenomenon attracts a lot of attention for its ethereal beauty, as fragmented ice pieces sparkle under sunlight, while intricate ice textures create a translucent, jade-like patterns on the frozen surface.

The Sanya Phoenix International Airport, located in the resort city of Sanya in south China's tropical island province of Hainan, commenced the trial operation of its newly built Terminal 3 (T3) on Sunday, marking a major expansion of the tourism hub's capacity ahead of the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush.

With the addition of T3, the airport's annual passenger throughput is projected to reach 30 million trips.

The terminal will fully assume the function of handling domestic flights, featuring 40 check-in counters, 23 security screening lanes, and seven fixed boarding bridges.

Connected to Terminals 1 and 2 via enclosed corridors, it is intended to deliver a seamless travel experience for passengers.

During the 2026 Spring Festival travel season, spanning from February 2 to March 13, the Sanya Phoenix International Airport is expected to handle about 18,600 flights and 3.49 million passenger trips.

By leveraging T3's added capacity, the airport aims to alleviate operational pressure on other terminals and improve service efficiency during the peak travel period.

"The airport will work to enhance its overall operational capacity and turnover efficiency, strengthen end-to-end flight management, and focus efforts on increasing the rate of flights docking at bridges and the on-time rate, to keep improving travel experience for passengers," said Li Xiaohuan, assistant to the president of the Sanya Phoenix International Airport.