Chinese state councilor Liu Yandong declared the 2009 World Winter University Games open on Wednesday evening, reeling off the biennial event here in China's northeastern 'Ice City'.

It's the first time that China staged such a world-class winter games, a grand one only second to Winter Olympic Games, and also the third time in Asia after Sapporo of Japan in 1991 and Chonju of South Korea in 1997.

The 11-day Harbin Universiade to run through Feb. 28, the 24th edition of the Games since 1960, offers a record number of gold medals for 81 events in 12 sports, 16 of which have never been competed in China.

The Universiade also makes another record of 44 participating countries and regions across the world, featuring some 2,500 people, including more than 1,600 athletes

The Wednesday's ceremony caps four years of hard work that has reshaped Harbin and made a seal on a possible first choice city in China to bid for even larger winter sports games in the future.

Fifty-one sports and accommodating facilities for the biennial games have completed constructing and renovating by the end of November, 2008. Among them, skating rinks, skiing courses and transportation networks have all been upgraded.