Annual Ice & Snow Festival opened in Harbin

The annual Ice and Snow Festival with its fabulous ice sculptures has opened in Harbin. The event attracts crowds of tourists to the capital of China's northernmost province, Heilongjiang, founded in the late 19th century, Azernews reports, citing foreign media.

This year the area of the ice park is 810,000 square meters, and 250,000 cubic meters of sculptural ice collected from the nearby frozen Sungua River is illuminated at night with colorful lights.

The sculptures, some of which are as tall as multi-storey buildings, depict Chinese-style buildings and bridges, fairy-tale castles, towers and even the Beijing Temple of Heaven. Several ice slides have been built in the park for children and adults.

Sun Zemin, the festival's vice director of marketing, said that the average number of people visiting the park daily has increased significantly this year to about 30,000, and hotel rooms in the city have been booked in advance.

"In 2018, the average number of people visiting the park per day was about 18,500... Thus, the total number of people has almost doubled compared to previous years," he said.

During the New Year holidays, the festival park was visited by more than five times more visitors than a year ago – 163,200 people. This brought in revenue of 46.18 million yuan ($6.45 million), which is almost six times more than a year ago, according to local Heilongjiang TV.

This year's winter turned out to be an important season for Harbin, as interest in the ice destination increased dramatically after reports appeared on social media that many citizens from the warm south were flocking to the snow-covered city, which is seen as a key factor in launching the "ice and snow" economy there.

"This is the first winter vacation since the pandemic restrictions were lifted, and people can't hold back," said Long Ping, a 19–year-old college student, adding that people wanted to go outside and relax after several stressful years of the COVID pandemic.

China lifted its strict quarantine restrictions in connection with COVID in December 2022 and many businesses, especially in the tourism sector, began to revive a little.