Winter invigorates trips to snow festivals

Horse racing is one of the many traditional sports at the ongoing "Nadam" Winter Fair celebrated by the Ewenki ethnic group in Ewenki Autonomous Banner, Inner Mongolia. Yu Changjun / for China Daily

The National Stadium, home to the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games 2008, has been remade into a fairyland of white. Snow sculptures, mini ski slopes and skating rinks in the arena give visitors a different experience of the Bird's Nest. A 20-meter-high snow-covered mountain serves as the backdrop for a stage welcoming interactive shows twice a day and rock concerts during Spring Festival.

A woman and two girls show their excitement on Dec 17 at the newly opened Jurassic Ski Park in Karamay, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Zhou Jianling / for China Daily

But the excitement is not the monopoly of Northern China. Window of the World, a famous tourist site in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, has opened its own ice and snow carnival, a month-long fete that fascinates people in Southern China with a 2,400-square-meter skating rink and a 4,000-square-meter "ski resort". Its non-stop celebrations also include a grand parade of popular cartoon characters and New Year party.