First-class winter sports venues are ready for the upcoming 24th Winter Universiade in Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang province, and all bode a bright future for domestic alpine and ice athletes.

"All the sports facilities for the winter sports will be open to the public after the games and we hope it will help the popularity of winter sports in China," promised Li Zhanshu, governor of Heilongjiang province.

Running from Feb 18-28, the 24th Winter Universiade will feature 12 sports divided into 82 disciplines and is expected to attract more than 4,000 athletes from more than 50 countries and regions, making it the largest edition to date.

Harbin will play host to all ice events, while Yabuli Ski Resort (195km away) and Maoer Mountain Ski Field (90km) will showcase competition on the snow.

According to officials, the investment for all the venues and necessary infrastructure in the city has reached 3 billion yuan ($4.38 billion).

Ministries of the central government, departments in Heilongjiang Province and the Harbin municipal government have all invested in the games.

All eight gymnasiums with ice rinks in Harbin and the two high-standard ski resorts are completed.

Among them, the Heilongjiang Speed Skating Gym, which will hold speed skating and curling events, has just been renovated into one of the most advanced speed skating venues in the world and will be free to the public after the games.

"Besides offering training fields for professional sports teams, the venue will open to the public for free for a certain period of time everyday to help popularize skating among common people," said Zhao Yingliang, director of the gymnasium. "There are nearly 1,000 people training here per day and among them around 500 are common people."

Costing 31 million yuan ($4.5 million), the 5,550-seat venue has just had a glass roof added to maximize natural light, while warm-up areas have been renovated to make it more comfortable for athletes.

"The glass roof with shadowless glue was used for the first time on an ice rink and could save a lot of energy," Zhao explained.

Yabuli Ski Resort is China's largest with the best facilities and services to cater for the game's skiing events.

Its fields will host alpine and cross-country skiing, ski jumping, Nordic combined and freestyle skiing.

All of the above facilities earned International Ski Federation approval following several improvements.

"Hosting the snow events for the Winter Universiade has quickened the development of our ski resort for 10 years," said Zhou Yiyun, one of the officials of Yabuli Ski Resort. "I believe we will attract more skiing fans to come here in the future."

China will send its largest delegation to date to the colossal sporting event to help ensure the country's success on its debut as host.

The 347-member delegation has targeted six to eight gold medals for a top-three finish.

The last Winter Universiade two years ago, in the Italian city of Turin, yielded China three golds, six silvers and six bronzes to rank it eighth in the overall medal tally.

(China Daily December 25, 2008)