Winter taking shape in Changchun

Visitors pose for a photo in front of snow sculptures in Changchun. [Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]

Pine boughs heave beneath blizzards' bounties.

Such landscapes and the activities they enable have brought more than 107 million visitors to the 17 annual festivals, generating 117.5 billion yuan ($19 billion) in revenue since the events' inception, the provincial government says.

Exhilaration surges when the mercury plummets in Changchun.

The primary event has since 2003 remained the Vasaloppet long-distance cross-country competition that lures elite skiers from around the world.

This Jan 1 and 2 marked Changchun's first Vasaloppet since China officially joined the 20-nation Worldloppet as an associate member in summer. Contenders from 33 countries flew to Changchun this month.

Winter has become the calling card of the city, whose name translates as "Long Spring".

It's the intensity of the city's wintertime that, in turn, elongates its springtime.

And while Jack Frost and Old Man Winter live large in Changchun, another immortal wintertime patriarch has his own theme park in Jingyue National Forest Park - Kris Kringle.

"Christmas Paradise" is a European-style entertainment zone that claims to be the world's second park built according to the theme of "Father Christmas' homeland".

(Um, who says Santa can't be Chinese?)

The forest also contains a Jin Dynasty tomb and a 30,000-square-meter deer park inhabited by more than 1,000 spotted deer and reindeer.

That's not to mention a golf course. Just in case the park's offerings weren't varied - you could say random - enough.

Who knows? Maybe Santa is a golfer.