Event in Xinjiang to pave way for Olympics

China's 13th National Winter Games, which are being hosted in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from Wednesday to Jan 30, will significantly help China promote winter sports in its western regions and achieve the goal of 300 million participants before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, a top sports official said.

Previous National Winter Games, first introduced in 1959, were all hosted by Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in the northeast, where winter sports have enjoyed huge popularity.

"Hosting the 13th National Winter Games in Xinjiang is a strategic move for China's winter sports, which will be further promoted to western and southern China. It will also help China gain more experience in organizing winter sports events to prepare for the Beijing Winter Olympics," Liu Peng, China's sports minister, said at the ceremony.