China's northern-most province, Heilongjiang , is trying to shed its image as a gritty industrial base with a public relations campaign highlighting its cultural riches.
'Heilongjiang doesn't just get lots of wintry weather or have loads of floundering state-owned companies,' said Yi Junqing , the new director of the provincial culture and communication department. 'It has an incredible cultural heritage ready to be tapped.'
The presentation by the top cultural official overflowed with superlatives. However, the notion sounds counter-intuitive to put it mildly. The rust-belt province is known for anything but culture.
But Dr Yi insisted that, as well as its 'incomparable ice and snow resources', the province had the potential to become a cultural powerhouse in the near future.
Heilongjiang - where the average winter temperature is minus 22 degrees Celsius and the winter sun sets at 3pm - has already turned what is probably its biggest liability into an asset. The annual ice sculpture festival in its capital, Harbin , has made it a popular tourist destination. The city bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, and even though it lost to Vancouver, its international profile was raised a notch.
The initiatives of Dr Yi, 50, who received his doctorate from the University of Belgrade, go far beyond the winter theme.
For the Heilongjiang native who left the land only for his studies - four years at Peking University and nearly three years in the former Yugoslavia - the province is 'a cultural gem that needs to be polished up'.