The 2025-26 new snow season opening ceremony and the 31st Jilin Rime Ice and Snow Festival kicked off in Jilin city, Jilin province, Nov 22, 2025. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The 2025-26 new snow season opening ceremony and the 31st Jilin Rime Ice and Snow Festival kicked off on Saturday in Jilin city, Jilin province, attracting numerous ski enthusiasts and tourists to come for the beautiful scenery and the endless thrills of ice and snow sports

The spectacular opening performance featured unique events such as skiing in Peking opera costumes and lion dance skiing, earning cheers from tourists and skiing enthusiasts.

The 2025-26 new snow season opening ceremony and the 31st Jilin Rime Ice and Snow Festival kicked off in Jilin city, Jilin province, Nov 22, 2025. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Jilin boasts exceptional ice and snow resources, with the number of national-level ski tourism resorts and ski visits ranking first in the country.

For the new snow season, the total area and length of ski slopes, as well as the number of aerial lifts in the province, have increased, marking a splendid upgrade in Jilin's ice and snow sports facilities.

The Songhua Lake Resort, the host of the ceremony, is a leading large-scale ski resort in China that can accommodate 15,000 skiers simultaneously.

For ski enthusiasts, Jilin will be their best choice instead of going overseas.

On Friday night, the Songhua Lake Restore received a Guinness World Records certificate for "the most people dressed in Chinese opera costume to complete the same 1-km skiing".

A formation of 266 members showcased the brilliance of national essence with their colorful costumes and agile skis.

The 2025-26 new snow season opening ceremony and the 31st Jilin Rime Ice and Snow Festival kicked off in Jilin city, Jilin province, Nov 22, 2025. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Jilin province's snow is the kind that skiers everywhere dream of – light, dry, fluffy, and so soft it feels like sifted flour beneath their boots. This rare quality comes from its location along the world's golden latitude for winter sports, the same band that shapes the Alps in Europe and the Rockies in North America, which gives every slope in Jilin a smooth, buoyant texture that makes gliding almost effortless.

As China's only pilot province for a full ice-and-snow resource survey, Jilin has identified 89,531 distinct winter resources. Today, nearly 70 ski resorts operate across the province, reaching every county, while five national-level tourism resorts lead the nation.