Leveraging its longstanding tradition in winter sports and unparalleled advantages in ice and snow resources, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province has continuously nurtured excellent winter sports talent, officials said on Wednesday.

"Over the years, Heilongjiang has nurtured 15 Winter Olympic champions, such as Yang Yang, Wang Meng, Shen Xue, Zhao Hongbo, Zhang Hong, and Gao Tingyu," Zhuang Shichao, deputy secretary-general of the organizing committee and deputy director of the executive committee of the ongoing 9th Asian Winter Games in Harbin said at Wednesday's news conference. "Additionally, the cities of Harbin and Qitaihe were granted the commemorative title of 'City of Olympic Champions' by the Chinese Olympic Committee."

"We encourage different regions in the province to fully leverage their own strengths in developing different winter sports," said Zhuang. "For example, Qitaihe specializes in shorttrack speed skating, Qiqihar in ice hockey, Yichun in curling, Hegang in alpine skiing, and Jixi in cross-country skiing, forming a distinctive three-tier system of specialized and amateur talent development."

According to Zhuang, Heilongjiang has built 32 national-level ice and snow talent bases and 24 provincial-level bases.

The province also focuses on promoting winter sports among the younger generations.

From 2016 to 2024, the province conducted ice and snow activities in over 20,500 schools, with a total participation of over 15 million individuals.

"In recent years, we have consistently made winter sports a primary focus in our curriculum," said Liu Zhaoguo, inspector-general of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Education. "We have established 774 schools with winter sports characteristics, where instructors provide 630 hours of annual teaching and guidance, ensuring that each student masters at least one winter sport skill proficiently."

The province also launched a series of ice and snow sports events, such as the Heilongjiang Provincial Student Winter Games, the Ice and Snow Sculpture Creative Design Competition, the Ice and Snow Art Carnival, student ice hockey leagues, as well as alpine skiing and curling championships, with an annual participation of 440,000 students.

Furthermore, Heilongjiang places great emphasis on the development of the ice and snow equipment industry.

"The province has a large number of ice and snow equipment manufacturing enterprises, with the capability to produce various types of ice and snow equipment, such as ice skates, skis, cable cars, towing systems, snowmobiles, snowmaking machines and entertainment equipment," said Wang Xuefeng, deputy director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology. "Quality ice and snow equipment manufacturing enterprises and industrial parks have settled in Heilongjiang."

"Leveraging the opportunity of hosting the Games and the achievements of engaging 300 million people in ice and snow sports in China, ice and snow equipment market demand will increase sharply," he said. "We will seize the opportunity and continue to support the development of the ice and snow equipment industry through various means, including strengthening technological innovation and product R&D, establishing homegrown brands, improving standard systems and leading industry upgrades."

Contact the writers at [email protected]