Ice festival tourists in China - 19th January 2024

The ice festival’s back in Harbin, China, after the pandemic. People come from across China to see the ice sculptures.

18,500 people visited the festival each day in 2018. Now, that’s increased to more than 30,000. 163,200 people visited during the New Year’s holidays. This brought $6.45 million to the area.

The ice festival has sculptures of Chinese-style houses. It also has sculptures of bridges and castles and ice slides for children. There’s even a copy of Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral.

At night, coloured lights fill the buildings and fireworks light the sky.

University student Zhao Ying thinks they’re beautiful.

Zhao Ying: "Even though it’s a bit cold, I think the ice sculptures are really beautiful. Also we just saw a fireworks show. I was very shocked because I’ve never seen fireworks like that before. It was really worth it."

The festival’s good for local tourism in Heilongjiang, which is China’s most northern province. The temperature here can go down to minus 24 degrees celsius. But over 3 million people came to Harbin during the festival.

Large numbers of tourists travel from southern China, where the weather’s warmer. They wear winter hats with little ears. Local people have started to call them "Southern Little Potatoes". This hashtag trended on social media, which has increased visitor numbers.

These students enjoyed preparing for the cold weather.

Fu: "Also I think going through the cold and preparing for it is part of the fun experience of coming to Harbin, everybody preparing together, and sharing how to prepare how to get through the cold."

Lin: "Yes, but even though we prepared a lot, my feet still can’t handle it. I need to go indoors."