The Ice and Snow Amusement World is a highlight of Harbin in winter.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Chinese travelers are warming up to winter. Domestic destinations where ice and snow take center stage hosted record visitor numbers following the first frost since the country won the Winter Olympics bid. Yang Feiyue reports.

Cold spots got hot this winter.

China's successful 2022 Winter Olympics bid has won the season a new place in Chinese hearts－and itineraries.

Record numbers of travelers became snow bunnies rather than snowbirds, and headed toward the nippy north rather than the steamy south.

All three of Northeast China provinces, and North China's Inner Mongolia and Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions－even Beijing's ski slopes－saw record crowds during the cold months.

Many made the trips from balmier, lower latitudes.

"Tourism related to ice and snow has sizzled this year," says Liu Sha, an account executive with the China CYTS Tours Holding Co's group tour center.

Skiing proved particularly popular.

It's what enticed Qin Jian from southern China's Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, to bring his 9-year-old son for six days in January in Harbin, capital of China's northernmost province, Heilongjiang.

"He loves skiing. But I'd only been able to take him to indoor facilities since it almost never snows where we live," Qin says.

"I wanted him to experience it in nature. He loves the sport more after the trip."