Representatives from Jilin and online-to-offline service platform Meituan sign a cooperation agreement during the festival launch ceremony, on Nov 28. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The fifth ice and snow and food festival of Northeast China's Jilin province opened on Nov 28 in the capital city of Changchun, promoting local cuisine and launching this year's catering consumption promotion during the winter tourism season.

The festival focused on marketing Jilin's catering culture and highlighted the culinary delights to be found in the central, eastern and western parts of the province -- aiming to promote and help guide Jilin’s catering enterprises, to seize the opportunities to be had during the peak ice and snow tourism season.

At the launch ceremony for the festival, Jilin's department of commerce signed a cooperation agreement with Meituan -- an online-to-offline service platform -- focusing on the theme of "promoting the catering culture of Jilin's cuisine and promoting the digital upgrading of the catering industry".

The two sides will work together to help the recovery along in consumer spending, boost services for people's livelihoods, and introduce initiatives involving the integrated development of business, tourism and culture.

The partners will fully support the development of new business forms and new models and promote the online and offline integration of catering companies.

The festival was a practical measure by Jilin to promote the interactive and integrated development of the ice and snow tourism industry and the catering industry, as well as to promote spending on catering by consumers during the ice and snow tourism season.

Cooperation between Jilin and Meituan will help local catering enterprises to take advantage of the internet platform, among other things.

It will boost the development of Jilin's cuisines and help increase spending on catering.