Overseas media: "Winter Olympic fever" makes the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger come alive and well

According to Agence France-Presse Beijing on February 4, Beijing did its best to celebrate the opening of the Winter Olympics despite the cold and strict epidemic prevention and control measures.

The Winter Olympics coincided with the first month of the Chinese New Year, during which thousands of Chinese families were reunited.

According to the report, a Beijing citizen interviewed said that due to the current epidemic, "this Winter Olympics will certainly not be as lively as the Beijing Summer Olympics." But everyone's hearts are still full of enthusiasm."

In the eyes of some, this is because China has changed.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China wanted to prove something, and the outside world generally believed that China appeared in front of the world as a strong country at that Olympic Games. Today, China is far richer and stronger than ever, and recent successes in epidemic prevention and control have boosted national self-confidence.

According to a Reuters report in Beijing on February 5, a few hours after the official opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics on the evening of the 4th, people braved the cold and lined up before dawn in order to buy the mascot "Ice Pier" of the panda image that many people think of as the "big star" of the Winter Olympics.

At a flagship store of Winter Olympic-related souvenirs in Wangfujing Shopping Street in the center of Beijing, souvenirs of the image of a rolling panda in a hard and transparent jumpsuit – knick-knacks, plush toys and pendants – were snapped up at 2 p.m. on the 5th.

According to the report, before the opening of the Winter Olympic Games on the 4th, although the relevant publicity is very intensive, the "Winter Olympic fever" has not yet been fully opened, and people's attention is mainly focused on the Spring Festival holiday starting from February 1.

Mei, a 7-year-old girl who was part of the queue waiting to enter the store that day, wanted to buy the "Ice Pier" series of goods, she said: "So cute! I must buy one! ”

A security guard at the Winter Olympic souvenir shop in Wangfujing said: "Suddenly a large group of people appeared and snatched up all the inventory for a year. ”

According to the report, 24-year-old Ren Yi originally wanted to buy a set of "ice pier" blind boxes for his girlfriend, a total of 7 models, but he could only return empty-handed.

"This set of 'ice piers' is very special because it will make us remember this Beijing Winter Olympics," he said. ”

In addition, according to Hong Kong's "Sing Tao Daily" reported on February 6, the Beijing Winter Olympics have officially opened, pushing the atmosphere of "all people on ice and snow" to a climax, and the ice and snow economy is also "alive and well".

The report pointed out that under the influence of the Winter Olympics, ice and snow sports related categories of goods have become the hot "New Year goods" of this ice and snow year.

The data shows that during the "New Year Festival" of a shopping website in 2022, the transaction amount of ice and snow equipment increased by 107% year-on-year, ice and snow sports clothing increased by 99% year-on-year, and ice and snow sports protective gear increased by 41% year-on-year.

The report believes that taking the preparation of the 2022 Winter Olympics as an opportunity, the ice and snow market has entered the fast lane. Many places have launched the ice and snow tourism season, and the consumption of ice and snow tourism is hot.

According to reports, according to the data released by a well-known domestic travel booking platform, ski ticket orders for the three days before the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger increased by 33% compared with the same period in 2021, the order volume of ski-themed hotels increased by 52% year-on-year, and the per capita expenditure of hotels increased by 13% year-on-year.

According to Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao website reported on February 6, the Beijing Winter Olympics opened the night before, and China hopes to popularize ice and snow sports and drive 300 million people to snow on ice by hosting this global sports event.

On the eve of the New Year of the Tiger, Shanghai ski enthusiast Yan Jingjing and her whole family took their bags to Daihai, Inner Mongolia to start a skiing trip, which is the fifth consecutive year that the family has spent the New Year at the ski resort.

In order to bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, China has made a commitment to promote ice and snow sports, proposing to achieve the ambitious goal of "bringing 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports". According to official data released last month, China has exceeded the targets set out in its Olympic bid plan.

Yan Jingjing's family has been going to ski resorts everywhere around New Year's Day and lunar New Year in recent years, and her young son, who is only five years old this year, has not been left behind.

Yan Jingjing said in an interview that under the shareholder wind of the Beijing Winter Olympics, "domestic ski facilities have been very significantly improved."