"China in 2007. 2008: The Houston International Festival offered a new twist on its honored country theme. The theme for iFest 2008, ""Out of Africa: the Three Journeys"", celebrated the rich history, achievements, contributions and triumphs of African people in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States and the rest of the world. 2009: iFest returned to its honored country theme and revisited the culture of Ireland. 2010: The honored region for the 2010 Houston International Festival was the Caribbean. 2011: THE SILK ROAD – The 2011 theme for the Houston International Festival follows the route of Marco Polo"
"and the traditional ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden, which was first held in 1963. Snow carving and ice and snow recreations are famous nationwide, especially among Asian countries including Korea, Japan, Thailand and Singapore. The ""Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival"" is one of the four largest ice and snow festivals in the world, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway's Holmenkollen Ski Festival. Every November, the city of Harbin sends teams of ice artisans to the United States to promote their unique art form. It takes more than 100 artisans to create ICE!,"
"The festival originated in Harbin's traditional ice lantern show and garden party that takes place in winter, which began in 1963. It was interrupted for a number of years during the Cultural Revolution, but has since been resumed when an annual event at Zhaolin Park was announced on January 5, 1985. In 2001, the Harbin Ice Festival was merged with Heilongjiang's International Ski Festival and got its new formal name, the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. In 2007, the festival featured a Canadian themed sculpture, ""in memoriam"" of Canadian doctor Norman Bethune. It was awarded a Guinness Record"
"RSC Arena, Dehradun. The figure in brackets indicates the number of events 2011 South Asian Winter Games The 1st South Asian Winter Games were held in Dehradun and Auli, in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India in January 2011. The games were conducted by the Indian Olympic Association and the Winter Games Federation of India. A grand opening and closing ceremony took place on 10 January 2011 and 16 January 2011, in Dehradun and Auli, respectively. The Ice skating and Ice hockey events were conducted from 10 to 12 January 2011 in Dehradun while the Skiing and Snowboarding events were"
"2011 South Asian Winter Games The 1st South Asian Winter Games were held in Dehradun and Auli, in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India in January 2011. The games were conducted by the Indian Olympic Association and the Winter Games Federation of India. A grand opening and closing ceremony took place on 10 January 2011 and 16 January 2011, in Dehradun and Auli, respectively. The Ice skating and Ice hockey events were conducted from 10 to 12 January 2011 in Dehradun while the Skiing and Snowboarding events were held from 14 to 16 January 2011 at Auli. At Dehradun a"
"2011 Asian Winter Games The 2011 Asian Winter Games was a multi sporting event that was held in Astana and Almaty, Kazakhstan and that began on January 30, 2011 and ended on February 6, 2011. It was the first time that Kazakhstan hosted such a large event since independence from the Soviet Union. The documents for the hosting city were signed in Kuwait on March 4, 2006. Astana Mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov announced venues being built include a multipurpose Sports Palace which will seat up to 15,000 spectators, a ski jump complex, a biathlon stadium, and an athlete village. Upgrades to"
"high at the 2005 games in Innsbruck. A total of 1880 athletes and 849 officials participated in the Universiade. Moldova, Thailand, and San Marino who were present at the 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin did not send athletes to the games. The host nation, Turkey, is highlighted in lavender blue. 2011 Winter Universiade The XXV Winter Universiade, took place in Erzurum, Turkey between 27 January to 6 February. Erzurum is the city at the highest altitude in Turkey, at , and has over 320 cultural landmarks. Located in Eastern Anatolia Region, it is a city on the traditional silk road"
"the main one in Harbin and the second one in Yabuli. 2009 Winter Universiade The 2009 Winter Universiade, the XXIV Winter Universiade took place in Harbin, China. Student athletes from 44 countries took part in the games. Harbin was selected by FISU on January 10, 2005 over future 2011 Winter Universiade host city Erzurum. They were the only two candidates. Harbin now has four stadiums for international ice games and five training stadiums. Among the venues, the following are mentioned in the official web site: These venues were used for the Asian Games and were part of Harbin's unsuccessful application"
"held in Yabuli ski resort, Shangzhi city. In the frame of this campaign to assert its role on the world scene, Harbin hosted the 2009 Winter Universiade. Local Government spent 3.6 billion yuan for this event, with 2.63 billion used in construction and renovation of its sport infrastructure for this Universiade. Harbin hosted the Asian Basketball Confederation Championship in 2003, in which China won the championship on their home court for the thirteenth time. Harbin bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, which was ultimately awarded to Vancouver, Canada. The second China-Russia University Winter Sports Carnival was inaugurated 12 December"
"he skated in the ""Supermatch: Medalist on Ice"" show in Korea, performing ""Sway"" and ""Winter"". On September 4, he participated in the ""Artistry on Ice"" show in Beijing. During the show, the wedding ceremony of the famous Chinese pair skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, the 2010 Olympic champions was held. As one of the invited guests he gave his blessing to the couple and performed ""Winter"" and ""Sway"" afterward. It was his first visit to China. In 2011, Yagudin told an interviewer that due to the hip replacement surgery he had undergone, he is no longer able to do"
"In the following calendar for the 2011 Asian Winter Games, each blue box represents an event competition, such as a qualification round, on that day. The yellow boxes represent days during which medal-awarding finals for a sport were held. 2011 Asian Winter Games The 2011 Asian Winter Games was a multi sporting event that was held in Astana and Almaty, Kazakhstan and that began on January 30, 2011 and ended on February 6, 2011. It was the first time that Kazakhstan hosted such a large event since independence from the Soviet Union. The documents for the hosting city were signed"
"and Mali faced both a drought and famine in 2010. Snow and fog occurred in Germany from January 3 to January 10. The Finnish railways and Helsinki airport are disrupted by further snowfall and record low temperatures for the Helsinki region. On January 6, the London Borough of Harrow closed 58 schools and 73 flights were cancelled at Heathrow as 3 cm of snow fell at Heathrow Airport. Continued snowstorms were forecast for the city of Beijing and the province of Inner Mongolia. Electricity rationing started on January 7. Snow had started falling in Gangsu province by January 7. It"
"ICIUM ICIUM Wonderworld of Ice is a winter entertainment park built in Levi, Finland from ice and snow. The first park opened on 18 December 2010. The park showcases both ice sculptures and snow sculptures in an area of about . ICIUM is built by Chinese ice sculptors from Harbin city, where the annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has been held since 1963. More than of snow was used in the construction of the first ICIUM in 2010. The builders also lifted over of ice from the Ounasjoki river to make the sculptures. The main attractions in"
"123rd IOC Session The 123rd International Olympic Committee Session (or the 2011 International Olympic Committee Session, the 123rd IOC Session or the 2011 IOC Session) was held in July 2011 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa. At the session, Pyeongchang, South Korea was announced as the host city of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games. The International Olympic Committee officially announced Durban as the host city of the 123rd IOC Session at the 120th IOC Session in Beijing, People's Republic of China on 7 August 2008, before the 2008 Summer Olympics."
"received only 25 votes. Annecy (in southeastern France) launched their own bid, which failed to secure public support from the local citizens. Their bid ended up receiving seven votes. Pyeongchang was elected as the host city at the 123rd IOC Session in Durban in 2011, earning the necessary majority of at least 48 votes in just one round of voting, more votes than its competitors combined. With this, Pyeongchang became the third Asian city to host the Winter Games; the first two were in Japan, at Sapporo (1972) and Nagano (1998). On 5 August 2011, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)"
"mid-January 2009. In February 2009 Yabuli Ski Resort hosted the Alpine, Nordic, and Freestyle Skiing events of the 2009 Winter Universiade. Student athletes from 44 countries competed in the games. The ice hockey, figure skating, speed skating and curling events were held in the city of Harbin, while the snowboarding events and biathlon were held in Mao'ershan Ski Resort. Yabuli Ski Resort received substantial infrastructure upgrades prior to the games, including a 4-seater chair, gondola, a modern ski hire and hotel near the base of the resort. 2016 World Champions of Snowboarding 2015 FIS Snowboard Junior World Championships Yabuli panda"
"for ice sculpture. The most famous event is the increasingly popular International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival held annually in Harbin. The festival has consistently increased in size over the years, with more talented artists involved and more impressive techniques and pieces on show. Ice sculpture decoration ranges from the modern technology of lasers to traditional ice lanterns. The climate of Heilongjiang is very cold and ice is plentiful. Objects of all sizes appear, up to and including building-sized pieces. French Chef Auguste Escoffier was responsible for one of the most famous early ice sculptures and French sculptors are regular"
"2009 Winter Universiade The 2009 Winter Universiade, the XXIV Winter Universiade took place in Harbin, China. Student athletes from 44 countries took part in the games. Harbin was selected by FISU on January 10, 2005 over future 2011 Winter Universiade host city Erzurum. They were the only two candidates. Harbin now has four stadiums for international ice games and five training stadiums. Among the venues, the following are mentioned in the official web site: These venues were used for the Asian Games and were part of Harbin's unsuccessful application for the 2010 Winter Olympics. There will be two athlete's villages,"
"2011 Asian Winter Games opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2011 Asian Winter Games was held at the Astana Arena, in Astana, Kazakhstan. It began at 6:00 PM () on 30 January 2011 and lasted approximately three hours. An estimated 30,000 were in attendance at the venue. There were an estimated 700 performers. A dramatised performance based on traditional Kazakh epic poems accompanied by a group of ethnic drummers, which was followed by a volley of red fireworks began the show. Members of the Kazakhstan army marched the Kazakh flag to the flagpost. The anthem was then sung by"
"Kazakhstan at the 2011 Asian Winter Games Kazakhstan was the host nation of the 2011 Asian Winter Games in Almaty and Astana from January 30, 2011 to February 6, 2011. Kazakhstan hosted the games for the first time. Kazakhstan won gold in bandy. Squad Preliminaries Final Kazakhstan will send a team of 21 athletes. The team includes Olympic silver medalist Elena Khrustaleva. Kazakhstan will send a team of 20 athletes. Kazakhstan will send a team of 12 athletes. Kazakhstan will send a team of 8 figure skaters. The men's team is in the top division for these games. Kazakhstan will"
"is only 36 millimetres. February 4 saw the worst winter in Beijing in 50 years, worst in Seoul in 70 years. The snow and frost activity was proving to be exceptionally bad that winter across northern India. Official reports suggest that the states of Punjab, Bihar, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have borne the brunt of the freezing temperatures in India. Officials at Canada's Vancouver Games were also worried about the lack of snow and frost as the city experienced its warmest January ever as the temperature never went below −2 °C. The average daily high and low for January 2010"
"17 countries won medals at these championships, a new record. The Czech Republic and New Zealand won their first medals at the World Snowboarding Championships, while Belgium won its first ever gold medal. A record of 370 participants from 44 nations competed. Canada has sent the biggest team with 47 entries and 31 athletes, while Montenegro only sent a delegation of one. FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2011 The FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2011 was an international snowboarding competition held from January 14, 2011 to January 22 in La Molina and Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) by the FIS Snowboarding World Championship, All"
"40 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius above zero. In 2017, a plan was unveiled to build a high-speed line between Harbin and Vladivostok which would be the first such connection between China and Russia. The city's main railway stations are the Harbin Railway Station, which was first built in 1899 and expanded in 1989.The main station is rebuilt in 2017, and now is still under construction; the Harbin East Railway Station, which opened in 1934; and the Harbin West Railway Station, which was built into the city's high-speed railway station in 2012. Another main station, Harbin North Railway Station,"
"was first started in 1985 and had never before seen such heavy snowfall. Harbin is China's tenth-largest city with a population of about 4,500,000, so planned electricity rationing would hit this usually busy city hard, as would the planned rationing in Beijing. The worst snowstorms in Northeastern China since 1949 claimed 40 lives, destroyed thousands of buildings and destroyed almost of winter crops, according to the Civil Affairs Ministry. The snowfall was the heaviest in the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong and Henan since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. On November 4, Tropical Storm"
"night sky of the Kazakhstan capital to close the show. 2011 Asian Winter Games opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2011 Asian Winter Games was held at the Astana Arena, in Astana, Kazakhstan. It began at 6:00 PM () on 30 January 2011 and lasted approximately three hours. An estimated 30,000 were in attendance at the venue. There were an estimated 700 performers. A dramatised performance based on traditional Kazakh epic poems accompanied by a group of ethnic drummers, which was followed by a volley of red fireworks began the show. Members of the Kazakhstan army marched the Kazakh"
"and Snow World opened to visitors in Harbin. More than 2,000 ice sculptures were on display at the annual event. Wudalianchi Lakes are a series of five lakes formed between 1719 and 1721 when volcanic eruption shaped one section of a tributary of the Amur into five interconnected lakes. The second lake in particular is renowned for its irregular geological sights. Lake Jingbo, in Ning'an County, is a section of the Mudan River that has been narrowed and shaped by volcanic eruption into a series of sights, including the Diaoshuilou Falls. The province has a zoological park called ""Harbin Siberian"
"IOC Session in Durban in 2011, earning the required majority of at least 48 votes in the first round of voting. The opening ceremony was held on 9 March 2018 at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, which was built specifically for the Winter Games. Competitions in the 2018 Winter Paralympics are being held in six Winter Paralympic sports, with 80 medal events in total. Snowboarding has been expanded into a separate discipline for 2018, with 10 medal events (in 2014, two medal events in snowboarding were held within the alpine skiing programme). In the following calendar for the 2018 Winter Paralympics, each"
"Ice hockey at the 2011 Asian Winter Games Ice hockey at the 2011 Asian Winter Games was held in Astana (males) and Almaty (females) in Kazakhstan from 28 January to 6 February. For these games, the men were competing in a 14-team tournament, and the women in a 5-team tournament. Ice hockey preliminaries actually started two days before the Opening Ceremony of the Games on 30 January. For the first time ever, there were two divisions in the male competition so as to avoid one sided games seen at the last edition of the games. India and Qatar withdrew and"
"2011 with the same time schedule. The tournament was held at North Harbour Hockey Stadium. Australia won the title for the fourth consecutive and twelfth time total by defeating Spain 1–0 in the final. For the 33rd edition of the Hockey Champions Trophy, India was elected to host the tournament by the FIH on February 4, 2011. But due to an ongoing governance issue with the Indian Hockey Federation, the FIH announced that India would no longer host the competition, instead; Auckland, New Zealand hosted the tournament. New Zealand businessman Owen Glenn was instrumental in gaining the hosting rights for"
"ice. A second arena in Almaty was built for the World Championship 2012, but it was taken down afterwards. Stadion Yunost in Oral will get artificial ice for the 2017-18 season. The national team took a silver medal at the 2011 Asian Winter Games, which led to being chosen as the best Mongolian sport team of 2011. Mongolia was proud to win the bronze medal of the B division at the 2017 Bandy World Championship after which the then President of Mongolia, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, held a reception for the team. Bandy was introduced to the Netherlands in the 1890s by"
"2011 Bandy World Championship The 2011 Bandy World Championship was an edition of the top annual event in international men's bandy, held between January 23 and January 30, 2011, in Kazan, Russia. 11 countries participated in the 2011 championships: Finland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the United States (group A) and Belarus, Canada, Hungary, Latvia, and the Netherlands (group B). Australia was supposed to participate but didn't come because of the floodings. At least five more countries wanted to come, but the tournament format at the time did not allow more than twelve teams. For the first time, Finland won the"
"Asian Winter Games, which North Korea gave up; however, Harbin was announced to host the 3rd Games. It was decided that Gangwon would host the 4th Asian Winter Games at the same time. Total 799 athletes participated in the Games. Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, short track speed skating, and figure skating events were held in Pyeongchang. On 6 July 2011, Pyeongchang was announced to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2018 Winter Paralympics. The other candidates were Annecy, France and Munich, Germany. It is the third Winter Games in Asia after the 1972 games in Sapporo, Japan and"
"Harbin–Dalian high-speed railway The Harbin–Dalian high-speed railway or Hada Railway () is a high-speed rail line connecting Harbin, Heilongjiang and Dalian, Liaoning. Construction work began on August 23, 2007 and the first commercial services began operating in December 1, 2012, nearly one year behind schedule. The line is the world's first alpine high-speed railway operating at high latitudes and low temperatures in winter. The trains can continue operating even with snow on the line and the tracks are fitted with de-icing technology. The project cost CN¥95 billion, which was 25% more than the original budget. The railway is the northernmost"