On March 15, 2003, during the first Jingyuetan Vasa International Ski Festival, 750 skiers from 15 countries came to Changchun to participate in this historic event, and more than 2,000 spectators cheered for skiers at the beginning and end. This is just a starting point. Since 2004, Vasa has led the ice and snow tourism activities in Changchun from single cross-country skiing to different levels including 50 km, 25 km, 3 km and children's Vasa (500 m). * * * Professional athletes and skiers from 15 different countries participated in the competition, and the number of participants rose to more than 2,200. Seven years later, in 2009, during the Vasa International Ski Festival, more than 20,000 skiers from 25 countries, including Olympic champions and world champions, gathered in Changchun. The world skiers' attention to China and Changchun has provided an exchange stage for the development of cross-country skiing in China.
Thanks to the "Vasa" Ski Festival in Jingyuetan, cross-country skiing "dances heartily" in Changchun, the whole province and even the whole country. Today, there are cross-country skiing in Changbai Mountain in Inner Mongolia, Shangri-La in Yunnan and Great Wall in Beijing. In 2007, the International Snow Federation took Changchun, Inner Mongolia and Yunnan as its three stops, and 46 of the global 100 masters participated in the tour. Some top international events, such as the International Snow Federation Century Cup, the Far East Cup Marathon Cross-country Skiing and the International Snow Federation Cross-country Skiing Points Competition, have all moved to Jingyuetan.
At the same time, Vasa has also trained a large number of cross-country skiing reserve talents for China. As of 2009, Vasa Ski Festival has cooperated with the Provincial Department of Education to carry out cross-country skiing training for college students for six consecutive years, and has trained more than 300,000 college students, laying a mass foundation for cross-country skiing in China. Through the platform of Vasa Ski Festival, more skiers from China have gone to the world, making a group of outstanding skiers such as Li and Li shine on the international stage. At present, Jingyuetan has been approved by the State Sports General Administration as a cross-country skiing base in China, and Changchun has won the reputation of "the cross-country skiing capital of China". "On the basis of promoting traditional culture, Changchun Vasa International Ski Festival also pays attention to adding new elements to ice and snow culture. Combine sports and tourism organically. Compared with Harbin's static ice lantern art and Yabuli's dynamic competitive skiing, Changchun Jingyuetan combines the two into one, and the combination of dynamic and static is mainly dynamic. " Guan Shusen said with a smile.
During the Vasa Ski Festival every year, apart from professional competitions, there are a series of activities with the theme of ice and snow, such as carving a large number of snow sculpture's works, holding the opening ceremony of the ice and snow sports park, and the ice and snow theme photography exhibition, which attract hundreds of thousands of friends at home and abroad to visit Changchun. Create an experiential tourism activity that focuses on people's sports experience and pays attention to participation, so that tourists can experience the fun of making snowman, watching ice, enjoying tree hanging, smoking ice monkeys and eating candied haws on the snow sledge while watching professional competitions, which greatly promotes the development of ice and snow tourism.
During the Vasa Ski Festival, the tourism consumption of food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment in Changchun increased greatly, which was praised by the media as the "platinum industry" in Changchun in winter. Nowadays, Jingyuetan Vasa Ski Festival has gradually become a part of Changchun people's cultural life, and has grown into a comprehensive tourism activity and a festival of national joy. Changchun, the host city, has also become a new winter tourist city.
Under the demonstration and guidance of "Vasa", more and more internationally renowned sports events have settled in Jingyue, such as Vasa International Orienteering, Li Ding Hiking Festival, Bi Ke International Mountain Bike Festival, Warriors Skiing Competition for the Disabled, etc ... By holding Vasa Skiing Festival, Changchun has built a bridge to communicate with the world. In recent years, at the ceremony held at the headquarters of Vasa, Sweden, attended by representatives from 50 countries around the world, the representative of China Changchun Vasa was always invited as the first guest to give a speech, introducing Changchun and Changchun Vasa. Changchun City popularized ice and snow sports with Vasa Ski Festival as the carrier and organized tourism activities with harmony as the connotation. The successful experience of economic and trade exchanges with other countries has been widely praised by all countries in the world.
In the major hotels in Mora, Sweden, there are promotional materials of Changchun Wasa, and in the Wasa Museum, there are booths for Changchun Wasa activities. In Mora, members of the Changchun delegation were treated with courtesy accompanied by the mayor. On the street, they often meet friends from other countries asking about Wasa in Changchun, and even hug members of the delegation and ask for autographs. They enthusiastically talked about their feelings of participating in the Vasa Festival in Changchun, China.
Because of Vasa, Changchun became twin cities with Mora, Sweden. Because of Vasa, Swedes, Europeans and even friends all over the world know Changchun, understand Changchun and have deep feelings for Changchun. Vasa Ski Festival has also promoted the rapid economic development, attracted sponsors from Germany, France and other business circles, and provided a platform for economic and trade exchanges between Changchun and Northern Europe. At 3: 00 p.m. on June 2 every year, Shangri-La Hotel is full of merchants and guests. As one of the key activities of the Vasa Ski Festival, the Vasa Economic and Trade Fair has attracted more than 70 billion yuan in investment in the past seven years, of which there are countless projects exceeding 100 million yuan.
During the Vasa Ski Festival every year, distinguished guests from various countries and internationally renowned athletes gather in Changchun, which greatly enhances the international popularity of Changchun. The European Broadcasting and Television Union, CCTV, china national radio, Xinhua News Agency and other domestic and foreign media specially sent people to follow up the opening ceremony and events of the Vasa Ski Festival, covering the Vasa Ski Festival from the grand occasion of the opening ceremony to the highlights of the competition, interviews with leaders and foreign guests, making the Vasa Ski Festival in Jingyuetan, Changchun a household name.
Vasa Ski Festival seems to be a red line thrown by Changchun between heaven and earth, which has led to many "ice and snow love". It has become the smoothest bridge between Changchun and the world, promoted exchanges and cooperation among many countries, and become a broad stage for displaying Chinese culture and a feast for gathering Chinese and Western civilizations. More and more foreign friends know about this open and atmospheric northeast city, and Vasa of Changchun has become an official business card with a smile, which has enhanced Changchun's international reputation. Jilin people have a long-standing love for ice and snow, which endows Jilin people with simple and generous temperament. Therefore, in the process of organizing the Vasa Games, we should always pay attention to preserving the original ecology of culture, innovating the unique culture in Northeast China, making full use of ice and snow resources to hold ice weddings, snow sculpture contests and snow rally, and at the same time, we should carry out various literary and painting creation activities related to ice and snow, invite citizens to participate in cross-country skiing, let people interact with nature, and feel the charm of northeast customs while enjoying ice and snow. On the basis of adhering to the traditional Vasa culture, Jingyuetan Vasa International Ski Festival expanded the connotation of Vasa Ski Festival, and held a series of fine activities such as "Vasa Night", "snow angels Selection" and "Vasa International Exchange Conference", which created the unique charm of Vasa in China.
In the "snow angels" contest, Vasa of China marked foreign activities as China, making snow angels an ambassador for cultural exchange. When she appeared on the international stage wearing a cheongsam and playing a national musical instrument, more international friends learned about China culture through this girl with China cultural connotation and oriental feminine charm, and showed the Kanto culture and northeast customs.
As the disseminator of China culture, Vasa Ski Festival moistens everything with spring rain. In Vasa's youth exchange activities, a China child and a Japanese child lived in the home of a Swedish citizen. Facing Japanese children's calligraphy, when Swedish children asked about its meaning, China children spoke vividly for more than 40 minutes. In this way, China's long history and culture were inadvertently passed on, and the 5,000-year-old civilization became a place that westerners yearned for, and all this was attributed to Vasa. With the increasing recognition and acceptance of Vasa in Changchun, Vasa culture, which combines Chinese and western civilizations, has shown its unique charm in the sacred land of the East.
In addition, Vasa Ski Festival also enlivens the sports and leisure life in our city and advocates the concept of healthy life. During the Vasa Festival every year, citizens will be organized to ski for free, special skiing sessions for disabled people will be held, and professional coaches will be hired to teach skiing knowledge, which will arouse the enthusiasm of the general public and let more people experience the fun of cross-country skiing. At present, there are world-class professional athletes, ordinary people, old people and children among the participants in the Vasa Ski Festival. The diverse crowd makes Changchun Vasa Ski Festival a national activity with public participation.