China's Changchun, a booming city in the fast-developing country, will feature a stunning ice gala in hosting the sixth Winter Asian Games with a total investment of US$2.8 billion.

The people from Asia and the world will turn eye on the northern big city of China from Qatar's Doha which has just hosted the 15th Asian Games in a huge success and showed the world with an incredible cultural carnival.

According to Yin Weiping, vice secretary of the media department of  the Changchun Winter Asiad Organizing Committee, a 94-day snow and ice tour festival will be held soon, which will cover the Chrismas, the New Year's Day, the Spring Festival and the Valentine's Day.

"The festival will feature 32 celebrating activities, including snow and ice carnival, evening parties with fireworks, and a 'snow and ice beauty contest'," She added.

"As the famous motor-city, culture-city and the birthplace of the People's Republic of China's movies, Changchun will showcase its special culture during the Winter Games. Players and tourists will have a great entertainment of it," She said.

"The Changchun Winter Asian Games will be a grand gathering of all the 45 members of the Olympic Committee of Asia. Some members will send delegations to Changchun but will not compete in the Games," She noted.

In Han Dynasty two thousand years ago, the Chinese special envoy Zhang Qian was sent on a diplomatic mission to West Asia and enjoyed the first contact of the Chinese and Arab cultures.

Nowadays, combining huge fortune with high technology, the Doha Asian Games drew world's attention on the Arab culture again. Although the host only collected nine gold medals, it won the recognition of the world on the fabulous cultural carnival.

Song Jixin, a Chinese sports development expert, has ever pointed out that the success of hosting a multi-sport games depends mainly on the wide recognition of the culture featured by the host city.

"As long as the concept of culture is recognized as wide as possible, the host will have a stage to show its economic and scientific strength," Song added.

On this point, the Doha Asiad won a huge success, which not only greatly improved Qatar's international image, but also exerted pressure on following hosts.

In four years, China will host three multi-sport international games: The 2007 Winter Asiad in Changchun, the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Although the Olympic Games is no doubt at the core, the Changchun Winter Asiad to be open on January 28 is the closest one to the Doha Asiad.

As Changchun is not Qatar which boasts of 28.4-billion-dollar GDP, the city will eye mainly on its own features and present a well-prepared snow and ice gala to Asia and the world.

 In recent years, Changchun successfully held series of high-level international sports games, such as the freestyle skiing world cup, the short course speed skating world cup.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2006)