Upon the invitation of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), a team of snow carvers from Macau Culinary Association entered the 44th International Snow Sculpture Contest in Japan and brought home the champion title. Its prize-winning snow sculpture titled “Crane Dance in Spring” is an exquisite work of art brought to life, winning appreciation of spectators from different parts of the world and shining on the snow wonderland as a tourism ambassador for Macao.
Last year, a team of snow carvers from Macau Culinary Association was invited by MGTO for the first time to join the International Snow Sculpture Contest and returned home as the runner-up. This year, Perry Yuan Kam Hung, Patrick Li Hing Cheung and Tam Kuong Wu from the Association once again joined the Contest as a team from Macao. Over the last four days, they dedicated unreserved efforts day and night against the severely cold weather to create this lively and exquisite snow sculpture named “Crane Dance in Spring”, a symbol of peace and longevity. With their master skills, the team won the championship in the 44th International Snow Sculpture Contest.
The Sapporo Snow Festival is a popular winter festival in Japan that attracts over two million visitors from domestic cities and abroad every year, and is widely covered by media from across the world. The 44th International Snow Sculpture Contest, a major highlight in the 68th Sapporo Snow Festival, pitted eleven teams from different countries and regions including Latvia, Hawaii, Poland, Singapore and Macao. The teams carved their snow sculptures openly at 11 chome on Odori Site from 5 – 8 February. Winners were announced on the site this morning (9 February).
By inviting the team to enter the International Snow Sculpture Contest, MGTO hopes to ride on this opportunity to promote Macao and attract more Japanese citizens and international visitors who enjoy joining events.
Last February, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR Government, Alexis Tam, led a delegation of MGTO to take part in the Sapporo Snow Festival and promote the destination. Macao, a feature destination in the Festival, showcased a snow sculpture of the Ruins of St. Paul’s and presented video mapping projections and more, attracted many local and foreign spectators.
Japan is the second largest international visitor source market for Macao. Last year, Japanese visitor arrivals topped 300,000 in Macao, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%.
