Enjoying a slice of the cold

Meanwhile, China is expected to see quick growth in winter tourism over the next few years, mainly due to Beijing's successful bid to host the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, says a recent report by China Tourism Academy.

The number of tourists will grow by an annual rate of 15 percent to reach 340 million in the 2021-2022 winter, from about 170 million in the 2016-2017 season, the report says.

Winter tourism revenue is projected to increase from about 270 billion yuan ($41 billion) over 2016-2017 to 670 billion yuan in 2021-2022, an annualized growth rate of 20 percent. And the value of winter tourism related industries is expected to be 2.88 trillion yuan by then.

Roughly 300 million Chinese are expected to take up winter sports by 2022, according to the report.

Beijing won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Games in 2015. And since then, local governments in Beijing and the northern region - the provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin - have unveiled policies to promote the "ice and snow tourism" industry.