"Ice Pier", conveying friendship and love

The picture shows the "ice pier" surrounding the golden garland. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xue Yubin

"Do you have an 'ice pier'?" Recently, this sentence has become a greeting for many people. After the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the mascot "Ice Pier" was widely welcomed. When the cute panda wears an ice crystal shell symbolizing the movement of ice and snow, its face is surrounded by colorful "ice ribbons", which is both cute and technological.

If you look closely, the palm of the "ice pier" still "carries" a red love heart. This warm love is passed on to people by the "ice pier". People all over the mainland buy souvenirs around the "ice pier" and use it as a gift to visit relatives and friends; on the field, the medal-winning athletes hold aloft the "ice pier" surrounded by golden garlands to share the joy of victory; in the Winter Olympic Village, guests from afar love the surrounding products such as the "ice pier" pillow...

From the 1990 Beijing Asian Games mascot panda "Panpan", to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games mascot Fuwa one of the "Jingjing", and then to today's "ice pier", the panda, as a classic image of traditional Chinese culture, tells the world the story of what happened in this land, and also conveys friendship and love.

The Winter Olympics coincided with the Spring Festival, and the clever integration of Chinese folk culture with the theme elements of the Winter Olympics made everyone marvel one after another. On 5 February, Prince Albert II, the Head of State of Monaco, experienced the production of a face sculpture in the shape of an "ice pier" and asked the staff to help him make another one so that he could give it to his twins.

Behind the popularity of "ice piers" is people's love and extensive participation in ice and snow sports. At the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, a short film called "Future Champions" attracted the attention of the audience. The toddler became a lover of ice and snow sports, although she fell again and again, she always laughed and got up again, and the relaxed and humorous picture made the audience can't help but be amused. These cute babies are called the realistic version of the "ice pier" by netizens, although their movements are still slightly "clumsy", but with the seeds of ice and snow sports continue to be planted, the prospects of China's ice and snow sports are enough to look forward to.

As Zhao Weidong, spokesman of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, said, the "ice pier" is loved by people, reflecting the heat of the Beijing Winter Olympics from the side, and also reflecting the effectiveness of "driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports". It is believed that the ice and snow heat brought by the "ice pier" will continue to heat up.

People's Daily ( 2022-02-09 10th edition)