The China Changchun 2022 Jingyue Lake Vasaloppet International Skiing Festival was opened at the Jingyue Lake of Changchun City, Capital of Jilin Province, on January 4, 2022. The event will last until March 31 of 2022 before which four professional cross-country skiing events and more than 40 ice and snow activity series will be organized. 

This year, the theme is “Passionate Vasaloppet, Attractive Jingyue Lake”, featuring such contents as ice and snow sport, adventure, culture, tourism and consumption to create a gorgeous feast with rich connotations, and diverse ornamental and entertaining forms for the visitors. 

It is the time of the year again in winter when the Jingyue Lake has become a wonderland of ice and snow sceneries in Northeast China. Starting gun signaled, the athletes dressed in various ski suits, galloping like a long dragon out of the Vasaloppet Gate of the Snow Sculpture Park “Snow World of the Jingyue Lake”, skiing fast on track to enjoy the speed and passion in a world of ice and snow. More than 400 professional athletes and skiers from such provinces as Jilin, Hebei and Gansu participated in the competition. 

“It’s my fifth participation in the festival. I feel very proud that such big event can be organized at home in your city as what other hosts have been doing abroad. More and more people around me have been attracted to this event,” said Zhang Guangwei. 

The track of the Changchun Jingyue Lake Vasaloppet is 25 kilometers, running across the ice, the roads and through the forests of the Jingyue Lake. It is also known as the most beautiful cross-country ski track in China. As a speed race uphill or downhill with the help of ski poles and skis, cross-country skiing is a great challenge for a player’s psychology and endurance. 

“This year, we invited some veterans mainly to pay tribute to Vasaloppet, and ice and snow sport. To popularize it, we have also designed a 2.5km short-distance entertainment competition, which has attracted many children. We hope that through these activities more people can learn about ice and snow sport and the charm of Vasaloppet cross-country skiing,” said Qi Meihui, Spokesman of Changchun Nordic Ways Vasaloppet. 

The biggest highlight of this festival is the full-format, multiple-level of activities of competition and entertainment featuring improved size and quality. In addition to several professional events, a number of ice and snow activities such as cross-country skiing training for college students, cross-country skiing for honor of Vasaloppet and skiing entertainment for children especially the “slide leisure area” totaling 206,300 square meters near the main gate of Jingyue Lake will be organized this year for the kids to enjoy to the content of their hearts. 

Also in the same period, some other activities including 1st Changchun Science Fiction Film Summit Forum, Annual Meeting for Collaboration of Cross-strait Sister Lakes, the 12th Jilin (Changchun) Winter Agriculture Expo and Spring Festival Shopping Fair, Ice and Snow Art Festival at Manshanli Resort, Ice Fishing Festival at Fujia of Jingyue Lake Scenic Area, Stories of Changchun Ice and Snow Cultural Exchange will be held. Insiders say high-quality ice and snow travel routes and various forms of ice and snow activities are expected to bring about a new peak of “ice and snow games for the public” in which Changchun’s rich ice and snow tourism resources, profound historical heritage, rich and colorful folk culture and the auspicious factors of traditional Chinese New Year will be integrated for the public to enjoy skiing and experience the most authentic winter games in North China, thereby facilitating with new vitality the construction of the cultural and creative center and regional consumption center, and a first-class winter tourism destination of Changchun City. 

Since the Vasaloppet entered China and settled in the Jingyue Lake of Changchun City in 2003, the China Changchun Jingyue Lake Vasaloppet International Skiing Festival has experienced 20 years of growth from a single competition into a large-scale international festival integrating sport and fitness, tourism and leisure, cultural, economic and trade exchanges and cooperation. With the project for the popularization and promotion of cross-country skiing for college students started in 2005, more than 700,000 students have been trained over the past years.