STORY: China's National Winter Games spurs growth of ice-snow sports, industry 
SHOOTING TIME: recent footage
DATELINE: Feb. 17, 2024
LENGTH: 0:01:33
LOCATION: HOHHOT, China
CATEGORY: SPORTS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of ice-snow sports
2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese): LI ZHIYOU, Deputy director of Inner Mongolia Sports Bureau
3. various of ice-snow sports

STORYLINE: 

China's 14th National Winter Games, the nation's first comprehensive winter sports event after the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, will kick off in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Saturday night.

More than 3,700 athletes nationwide will compete in 176 events, making this edition the largest and most extensive in the history of the National Winter Games.

The grand sports gala also inspired Inner Mongolia to make better use of its abundant ice-and-snow resources.

SOUNDBITE (Chinese): LI ZHIYOU, Deputy director of Inner Mongolia Sports Bureau
"This is the largest winter sports event in China after the Beijing Winter Olympics. The development of ice and snow sports has driven the development of other industries in Inner Mongolia, especially tourism, and the ice and snow economy. (This event) offers a very good chance for people to know more about Inner Mongolia."

Following the footprints of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, the 14th National Winter Games will continue to fuel China's enthusiasm for winter sports.

In recent years, China has engaged more than 300 million people in winter sports, and the ice-and-snow industry plays a vital role in boosting the country's economy this winter.

By 2022, the number of winter sports venues nationwide had grown to more than 2,450.
   
And the potential is still to be tapped, as China proposed that by the end of 2025, its total scale of the winter sports industry will reach one trillion yuan (139 billion U.S. dollars).

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Hohhot, China.
(XHTV)