Harbin Ice and Snow Festival Attracts Record Tourists To China (image: twitter.com/ChinaConsulate)

China”s annual Ice and Snow Festival, Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, draws crowds from across the world to the country. The grand and majestic ice structures exuding fairy-tale vibes began on last week, and has been in attracting visitors since then. Also known as, Harbin Ice Lantern Festival or Harbin Ice Festival, this winter festival takes place in the capital city of Harbin, in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province.

Touted as the world”s largest ice and snow festival, Harbin offer “special winter travel experiences like nowhere else on earth: ice and snow world, snow sculpture art expo, ice lantern art fair, ice and snow carnival, ice bar & restaurant, winter swimming, skiing, dog sledding, snowmobiling, or Siberian tiger and Arctic animals watching,” the website reads.

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival is an annual winter event in Harbin, China, drawing 18 million visitors and generating $4.4 billion in revenue.
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The ice park extends 810,000 square meters with 250,000 cubic meters of sculptured ice and these ice blocks are harvested from the nearby frozen Songhua River. These sculptures are lit-up with colourful lights, and these structures modelled on Chinese-style buildings and bridges, fairy-tale castles, towers and on Beijing”s Temple of Heaven.

The average number of people visiting the park daily has increased to 30,000 this year and the hotel rooms in the Harbin are reserved past Spring Festival In February, the festival”s marketing vice director Sun Zemin told Reuters.

Over the New Year”s holidays, Harbin park has welcomed 163,200 visitors, and generated 46.18 million yuan ($6.45 million) in income, which is six times higher than the previous year, the provincial Heilongjiang TV station reports.

The state media Xinhua says that major reason behind the popularity of the icy destination is social media. Tourism sector faces major revival due to this winter festival as COVID pandemic has severely hit the sector. Though China lifted the stringent COVID restrictions in December 2022, tourism arena was struggling to survive.