The opening ceremony for the 3rd Changbai Mountain Powder Snow Festival is held at Changbai Mountain in Northeast China's Jilin province on Jan 9. [Photo/cnjiwang.com]

The opening ceremony for the 3rd Changbai Mountain Powder Snow Festival and the 15th Changbai Mountain Snow Cultural Tourism Festival was held on Jan 9 at Changbai Mountain in Northeast China's Jilin province.

More than 20 ice and snow tourism, sports and cultural activities will be held during the festival, which runs until April 2021.

Hosted by Jilin Changbai Mountain Protection Development Management Committee, Jilin Province Department of Culture and Tourism and Hangzhou municipal government, the ceremony attracted the participation of over 200 officials, tourism industry guests and media outlet representatives.

At the ceremony, a regional tourism alliance agreement was signed by Changbai Mountain's surrounding counties and cities.

Initiated by Changbai Mountain's management committee, the alliance aims to integrate tourism resources, promote tourism brands and innovate tourism products.

It will also foster extensive cooperation to build a regional tourism economic circle around Changbai Mountain, linking all parts of the province and Northeast China.

At the ceremony, several tourism industrial projects to settle in the Changbai Mountain area were also signed.

In recent years, relying on its winter resources and the brand influence of Changbai Mountain, the local government has successively held the Changbai Mountain Snow Culture Tourism Festival 15 times and launched the Powder Snow Festival.

The local government has also continued to launch fashionable and diversified ice and snow experiences and created several distinctive event brands.

From 2019 to 2020, tourists made about 1.09 million visits to Changbai Mountain during the winter season, with a year-on-year increase of 33.6 percent.