Xi announces opening of Asian Winter Games

A three-part artistic performance, enhanced by technologies such as virtual reality and glasses-free 3D animation, captured the crowd's imagination with breathtaking projections depicting traditional Harbin images, such as ice harvesting from the frozen Songhua River, and the city's fairytale winter scenes of snow-laden branches glistening like jade amid swirling snowflakes.

Wearing costumes with lights attached, performers on roller skates and junior athletes skating on a real ice track glided onto the stage to depict enthusiastic participation in winter sports in Harbin, a renowned training base for China's ice and snow sports talent.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who also attended the opening show of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, said the Harbin event would surely exceed expectations.

"Knowing the expertise of the people of Harbin and of China in organizing great sporting events, the expectations are very high. As I know, China will even exceed these high expectations," he told Xinhua News Agency before the ceremony.

Impressed by the expansion of winter sports across Asia, Bach hailed the impact of Beijing 2022 and Harbin 2025 as a game-changer for ice and snow sports worldwide.

"The Games is part of the legacy (of Beijing 2022), and the development in winter sports in China is just breathtaking," said Bach, who will step down from the IOC after his second term expires next month.

"You could see winter sport athletes from Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (in Harbin). And in these countries, this excitement for winter sport is growing. This is how it should be, benefiting from this great legacy of Beijing 2022," he added.

For the exciting finale, a group of children holding ice lanterns skated to the center of the outdoor Ice and Snow World to jointly ignite the Games' cauldron with Zhang Hong, who won China's first speed skating Olympic gold medal at Sochi, Russia, in 2014.

The glow of lanterns and the flame of the Winter Asiad lit up the freezing night in Harbin as the cauldron, named the "Bloom of Ice Lilac", brought vigor and warmth.