Winter sports gain popularity in south China province
Winter sports have become increasingly popular in recent years across China's warm southern provinces. Residents from the south can experience winter sports and snow without traveling all the way to a northern province, by visiting the Sunac Snow Park in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong province.
Snowboarder Tonic Chen is a regular at the snow park, one of the worlds' biggest indoor snow parks, having quit his job to move closer when he first learned about the park and later founded his own snowboarding club.
"For us, snow is a very extraordinary thing. After I play snowboard, I can enjoy the real winter," said Chen, general manager of A.T.M Snow Club.
Since opening last June, Sunac has received nearly two million visitors in less than a year.
"Guests at the Sunac Snow Park are from across the country, but mainly most of them come from southern China, including Guangdong," said Sun Zheng, general manager of Guangzhou Sunac Cultural Tourism City.
In 2018, the number of people in Guangdong who took ski holidays jumped by more than 160 percent.
Experts have said that south China's snow sports industry still needs time to develop, but Sunac's growing number of visitors indicates that southern China is heading in the right direction.
Enterprises in east and southwest China have offered a series of heart-warming activities as well as extra bonuses for employees who will stay in their working places rather than go back to hometowns for the Spring Festival.
Wang Shuang, who works as a lobby manager at a hotel in Zibo City, east China's Shandong Province, has decided to stay put during the Spring Festival rather than returning home in the city of Laiwu.
In order to make these employees better enjoy the Spring Festival, the hotel has delivered packaged food to employees' home as well as offering beautifying services for women employees.
"The hotel has delivered its New Year's Eve dinner gift package to my home with our blessings. Because most of our employees are women, our hotel has provided us with manicure, flowers and will arrange dumpling-making for our Chinese Lunar New Year Eve dinner. All these make us feel very cozy as we can spend the Spring Festival outside our home very warmly," said Wang.
In southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, road construction workers have decided to continue their work during the Spring Festival.
A new year atmosphere can be felt at the construction site: red couplets have been put up on the doors and red lanterns are hanging out at the dormitory area, just like their homes.
"We clean our dorms every morning when we wake up to make it just like our homes and have the same festive vibe too. The festive atmosphere here is thick and makes us feel at home," said Kang Chenglong, a construction worker.A total of 269 workers in the Wansheng section of the Chongqing-Guizhou expressway expansion project chose to continue work during the Spring Festival. In addition to the 2,000 yuan allowances for each worker, they will be paid three times their regular salary for the first three days and twice for the following four days according to the legal standard working hours.
"It's great to celebrate the Spring Festival here. We are provided with food and drink as well as red envelopes. So it's good to be here," said Sun
He, staff member of the logistics department of the constitution site.
The Spring Festival falls on the first day of the first lunar month, thus, the date changes every year since it is based on the lunar calendar. In 2021, it falls on February 12, and Chinese people will enjoy a seven-day holiday which starts on the last day of the previous year.