China will host a mix of professional athletes and relative novices from desert and tropical countries when the Asian Winter Games open in Harbin on Friday.

This is the ninth edition of the games, first held in 1986, and the first since 2017, and comes at a sensitive time, a year before the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

The city of Harbin is in north-eastern China, close to the borders with Russia and North Korea, where temperatures reached minus 24 degrees Celsius during the day on Wednesday.

A total of 1,275 athletes from 34 countries are taking part in the games, according to organisers.

They will compete for medals in 11 sports.

The core activities of the Winter Games include a week-long programme of speed skating, figure skating, alpine skiing, snowboarding, snowboarding, ice hockey and curling.