China and South Korea headed into the men's curling semifinals at the Asian Winter Games on Wednesday.

China lifted the victory over their last opponent Japan in the round robin until the last end. Japan took a 4-1 lead at halftime, but China tied the score at 5-5 after the seventh end. China scored three points in the last end and sealed the win 8-5.

Hong Kong (China), Japan, the Philippines and Kazakhstan will compete for the remaining two berths of men's semifinals on Thursday.

"We have fully considered the possibility of falling behind and getting prepared before the match," said China's Xu Xiaoming, adding "We encouraged each other and snatched the victory by placing the stone in the desired position in the last end."

China also booked a berth in the women's curling semifinals with one match remaining after defeating the Philippines 9-5 in the round-robin.

"We controled the pace of the match, as we play a bit more aggressively at the beginning, but simplifid our play once we took the lead," said China's Han Yu.

China, South Korea and Japan advanced to the women's curling semifinals, and the last one will be decided on Thursday.

China's women team will next play Japan in the last round robin match on Thursday, when their men's counterparts will compete against the winner between Kazakhstan and Hong Kong, China.