Athetes train at the Heilongjiang Speed Skating Gymnasium, one of the venues for the 24th Winter Universiade, which will be held from Feb 18-28 in Harbin, Heilongjiang province. [Xinhua]

Harbin, capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang province and host to the 2009 Winter Universiade, is considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, senior officials revealed two months before the opening of the Universiade, from Feb 18-28.

"If the hosting of the 2009 Winter Universiade can win applause from all the guests, it will enhance our confidence to bid for the Winter Olympic Games," said Li Zhanshu, governor of Heilongjiang province. "We are considering a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, although the decision has to be approved by Chinese sports authorities."

Harbin, dubbed as "ice city" due to its beautiful scenery in winter, failed to make the short list for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, but won hosting rights for the 2009 Winter Universiade four years ago.

Vancouver, Canada, will host the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Harbin didn't launch a bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, which was awarded in Sochi, Russia.

For hosting China's first Winter Olympics, the governor expressed his confidence.

"One of the important goals of bidding for a Winter Universiade is to accumulate experience for hosting a Winter Olympics. The infrastructure here in Harbin has already been qualified for the Winter Universiade, which has the second largest number of winter sports following the Winter Olympics," Li said. "We will continue to improve our weak points according to the feedback from Universiade participants and visit Vancouver and Sochi to learn more.

"If we fail again for the 2018 Games, we are determined to win the 2022 Winter Games. It's our dream to host China's first Winter Olympics."

Winter tourism boosted

Through hosting the Winter Universiade and preparing for Olympic bidding, Harbin, famous dazzling outdoor ice sculptures, is counting on a tourism boost.

"Harbin has built up the best venues among all the host cities of the Winter Universiade and it is a golden opportunity to promote the city's rich tourism resources in winter," said Li. "We have already designed four tourism lines for the visitors to experience ice and snow in the whole province and we hope the hosting city of a Winter Universiade could be a new name card for the city and even the whole province."

At present, Heilongjiang province hosts almost 40 million tourists annually, about 5 million of whom are attracted by high-standard ski resorts.

"With rich ice and snow resources, Heilongjiang province could be called the biggest tourism province in the northern part of China. We will further promote our winter tourism with the platform of the Winter Universiade and upgrade our services level," said Li.

(China Daily December 25, 2008)