YINCHUAN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- While retirees are still enjoying their leisure time during the Lunar New Year, 64-year-old Yang Hongli has taken a different approach. He has taken to skiing on the frozen Beita lake in Yinchuan, China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

"Skiing as well as morning running and swimming are all part of my daily routine, I never stoped exercising even for one day during the Spring Festival holiday," said Yang, an extreme sports lover.

Spring Festival is one of the most important traditions in China, characterized by family celebrations and gorging on delicious food.

"With the rapid growth of the economy, our life is far better than the past. If we want, we can have meat and alcohol every single day, but celebrating Spring Festival is not all about eating and drinking," he said.

"This is a wonderful era, for people at my age, we care about more about health, and regular exercise can do us good," Yang added.

Yang suffered from hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia and hypertension for 20 years, but diet control, along with exercise like jogging, swimming and cycling have gradually helped him regain his health.

"I went for a health examination four years ago, and most of my body indexes are back to normal. I like the challenges, and I also take part in triathlon competitions across the country," Yang said.

Over the past several years, Yang has been to triatalons in more than 10 cities including Shanghai, Xiamen, and Weihai.

"If a city can represent a province, then I should have set foot on half of the land of China," Yang said.

This Spring Festival holiday, Yang kept up physical training in order to perform better in the upcoming triathlon competitions. He goes out for a 10-km running every morning and breaks the ice to swim outdoors at noon, and then ski for a whole afternoon in an natural ice-rink, the well-frozen Beita lake.

"Some exercises like running and swimming are fine in any season some are not. Winter is too cold for cycling, but we can ski," Yang said.

Yang also volunteers to help keep the ice clean.

"Ice-sports are especially popular during the Spring Festival; we want to ensure that the ice surface is smooth so that people can ski safely," Yang said.