An Ice Kingdom Even in Midsummer: Harbin Dreams of Becoming Year-Round Tourism City

"Make sure to bring scarves and gloves as well."

On the 20th, when midsummer heat was raging in Harbin, northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province.

Even though daytime temperatures topped 30 degrees Celsius (86°F), an official from the Harbin city government repeatedly urged visitors to pack thick long padding jackets and winter boots, as well as scarves and gloves.

Stepping inside after putting on all the winter clothes, the indoor temperature was minus 13 degrees Celsius (9°F).

The cold air hitting the face naturally made the body shrink back.

Fierce chilliness that made one forget it was midsummer permeated the entire body.

This is the Harbin Ice-Snow World, the world's largest indoor ice-and-snow theme park themed around snow and ice that opened last year.

Spanning a total floor area of 23,800 square meters, larger than three football fields, the Ice-Snow World was created by using 20,000 cubic meters of ice harvested from the Songhua River last winter.

The indoor facility features themed spaces such as "Ice and Snow Overture" and "Ice City," alongside an ice bobsleigh track and a media art experience center.

Various lighting and video productions created an atmosphere as if one had arrived in an ice kingdom even in the middle of summer.

Children burst into cheers while riding ice slides and bobsleighs, and parents were busy capturing their children's moments on their mobile phones.

Artificial snowflakes fluttered on one side.

Tourists continuously clicked their mobile phone cameras against the backdrop of colorful ice sculptures.

A Chinese visitor surnamed Chen, who visited the place with family, smiled and said, "We came here thinking we could forget the heat, but it is beyond expectations. Seeing my child running freely amidst snow and ice makes our whole family happy."


After finishing about an hour of viewing and coming outside, a wave of hot air rushed in all at once.

However, the chill deep inside the body did not easily fade, and the faces of tourists who stepped out of the exit were all flushed.

Harbin, often called the "Moscow of the East," is a representative winter tourism city in China.

Launched in 1985, the Harbin Ice Festival is ranked among the world's top three winter festivals, alongside Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival and Canada's Quebec Winter Carnival.

During the festival period running from every December to February, more than 3 million tourists visit, but things changed once the festival ended.

The festival venue, crowded with tourists, closed in the spring, and the vast site remained vacant without being utilized.

The solution put forward by the Harbin city government was "four-season ice-and-snow tourism."

It created an indoor theme park so that people can experience snow and ice throughout all four seasons.

An official from the Harbin Publicity Department explained, "Our goal is to create a city where people can experience ice-and-snow culture anytime 365 days a year, and it is a core project to transform from a winter tourism city into a four-season tourism city."

Indeed, since its opening last year, the Ice-Snow World has established itself as a tourist attraction drawing an average of about 8,000 visitors a day.

Harbin's transformation does not stop at the indoor ice-and-snow pavilion.

In the outdoor space, the Harbin International Beer Festival is held every summer.

The spot where winter ice structures once stood transforms into a festival venue filled with beers from various countries, performances, and food.

A resident met at the festival venue said, "Until a few years ago, this place was practically a wasteland once the winter festival ended. After the beer festival and the indoor ice pavilion moved in, tourists visit even in the summer."

At a nearby performance venue, large-scale ice shows themed around snow and ice are held every night.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.