China's northernmost Heilongjiang province will build itself into a year-round travel destination, according to Zhang Qixiang, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and mayor of Heilongjiang's provincial capital Harbin, at a press conference held by the Heilongjiang NPC delegation to the first session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing on March 7.
 
Zhang said that Heilongjiang is a frontier province in the north of the country with unique tourist attractions. The area under its jurisdiction has vast forests dotted with lakes of various sizes and a natural wetland area of 5.56 million hectares.
 
In addition to its rich natural landscapes, Heilongjiang also has a rich ice and snow culture, frontier culture, ethnic culture, and Party culture.
 
In recent years, Heilongjiang has accelerated the promotion of the high-quality development of its tourism industry, striving to build an international ice and snow tourism resort, an ecological health tourism destination, and a personal-driving and outdoor sports tourism destination.
 
Strong efforts will be made to achieve such goals in the following years.
 
Efforts will include the creation of a new benchmark for the ice and snow economy, building of a tourism development model driven by leading enterprises, creation of a new model for characteristic tourism, creation of a new highlight in brand marketing, and creation of a new standard for high-quality services.