DEEP in the heart of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, which is often balmy in winter, two famous scenic spots of snow and ice can be found at this time of year.

When snowflakes fall in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, they make headlines due to their rarity, although a two-hour bus trip to the Longchi National Forest Park in Dujiangyan City or a 40-minute air flight plus a 1.5-hour bus ride to Jiuzhaigou in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture lands the traveller in one of the most scenic stops for a winter tour in this Chinese region.

The Longchi National Forest Park, 70 kilometres from Chengdu, is located in the State-level Longxi-Hongkou Nature Reserve. Covering 320 square kilometres, the park is more than 2,000 metres above sea level on average.

With more than 3,000 kinds of plants and more than 350 kinds of animals, the park is hailed as a "natural botanical garden" and "gene bank of wild and rare animals and plants". It is home to the giant panda, the snub-nosed monkey and the dove tree.

With murmuring streams and flying birds, the tranquil park, which has an annual temperature averaging 15 degrees centigrade, is an ideal place to explore.

One can enjoy its blossoming flowers in spring, while avoiding intense heat due to the fact its highest temperature never exceeds 30 degrees Centigrade. One can also appreciate its autumnal leaves and winter snow.

"Snow can stay on the ground in the park for between four and five months of the year, ranging from 50 to 70 centimetres in depth. The park is ideal for appreciating snow and skiing," said Wang Er'ming, deputy chief of Longchi Town, which oversees the park.

"To woo more visitors to the park, Longchi was the first scenic spot in Sichuan to hold an ice and snow festival, in 1985. Now, it is holding the Ninth Longchi Ice and Snow Festival, which is to end in March," Wang said.

"In addition to traditional skiing, playing frisbee on the snow, motorcycling on the snow, fighting with snow balls and viewing groups of monkeys, visitors this year can appreciate ice carvings featuring dragons, since the park has spent about 200,000 yuan (US$24,155) building the carvings," he said.

Jiuzhaigou, which is the only Chinese tourism destination with the three internationally acclaimed titles of World Natural Heritage site, World Biosphere Reserve and Green Globe 21, is also a stunningly beautiful vista at any time of the year.

About 440 kilometres north of Chengdu, the 720-square-kilometre Jiuzhaigou is spread over a Y-shaped ravine about 30 kilometres long and at elevations of 2,000 to 3,100 metres.

What visitors find unique is crystal clear water in its alpine lakes. A local geographical record, compiled in the 19th century, says: "Water here is bright green like an emerald, reflecting images of trees and mountain peaks." That is an apt description.

Right now Jiuzhaigou is in its snow and ice season, which typically lasts from October to March. It looks like a winter fairyland as its trees and plants are all covered with snow. The snow can absolutely dazzle the onlooker. Bitter cold hardens it into ice, turning the threes and plants into "ice flowers" and waterfalls into natural ice carvings.

The ice on the famous Long Lake and Panda Lake in Jiuzhaigou can be as much as 60 metres thick and visitors can easily frolic on it, said Bian Hu, a photographer in Chengdu who has been to Jiuzhaigou many times in winter.

Because of the unique winter scenery of the Longchi National Forest Park and Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan has decided to designate them, together, as one of the two sites for holding the Fourth South China Ice and Snow Festival from January to March, said Wang Rongxuan, deputy chief of the Sichuan Provincial Tourism Development Leading Group.

The festival is designed to promote winter tourism in Sichuan, Wang said.

With many top-notch tourism resources known both at home and abroad, Sichuan has four of China's 31 sites on the World Heritage List. They are Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong, the Mount Emei-Leshan Grand Buddha and Mount Qingcheng-Dujiangyan.

Despite brisk business at most times of the year, the Sichuan's tourism market used to be sluggish in winter, with plunging tourism income. To offset the situation, Sichuan started holding the First South China Ice and Snow Festival in the Xiling Snow-capped Mountain in Dayi County in 2001, the first State-sponsored ice and snow festival ever held in Southwest China, to woo additional visitors from different parts of the world.

Sichuan has many scenic spots where snow lasts at least three months, with minimum temperatures between five to 10 degrees Centigrade below zero. These include Jiuzhaigou, the Xiling Snow-capped Mountain, Mount E'mei, Conch Gully, Mount Wawu and the Wolong and Longchi nature reserves.

Sichuan's ice and snow world is near to Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. People from those regions find it more convenient and moneysaving to see snow in Sichuan than traveling all the way to North China, said Liu Jie, director of the Sichuan Provincial Tourism Administration.