'Gold and silver'

Xi has championed fully exploiting the nation's ice and snow resources, saying on multiple occasions that "ice and snow are also as valuable as gold and silver".

Xi has made specific instructions on the development of winter tourism during fact-finding trips to Northeast China in 2023, highlighting the importance of "enabling the picturesque landscapes of the northern borderlands and the wealth of ice and snow resources to provide an inexhaustible source of income for the residents".

During the Spring Festival holiday from Feb 10 to 17, 2024, Harbin, dubbed China's "ice city" and the capital of Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, welcomed a record-high of 10.09 million visits and generated 16.42 billion yuan (about $2.28 billion) of tourism revenue, a year-on-year increase of 235.4 percent, according to the city's tourism department.