Ice-and-snow theme park opens

Gliding down an over-500-meter-long ice slide, Zhang Jiajia felt like she was flying, and that her one-minute experience had been worth the hour-plus wait in line.

“It’s super exciting,” said Zhang, a tourist from east China’s Zhejiang Province, after trying the Super Ice Slide at the iconic Harbin Ice-Snow World in the capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, which began its annual run Saturday.

Staff members greet tourists at the Harbin Ice-Snow World in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Dec. 21. Photos from Xinhua

Themed “Dream of Winter, Love among Asia,” the park was built using 300,000 cubic meters of ice and snow, incorporating elements inspired by the upcoming 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games, which will kick off in February, right after China’s Spring Festival holiday.

With an overall planned area of 1 million square meters, up from last year’s 800,000 square meters, the park is the largest in its 26-year history.

The park features nine major zones, recreating iconic landscapes of 42 countries and 3 regions that are members of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) in ice-and-snow structures. Illuminated at night, these include replicas of the Temple of Heaven in China, Osaka Castle in Japan and the Taj Mahal in India.

Children play at the Harbin Ice-Snow World in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Dec. 21.

The main tower stands on the main axis of the park, featuring towering ice columns that depict the official emblem of the OCA.

The most popular attraction in the park, the Super Ice Slide, has increased the number of its lanes to 24, with a 300-meter-long windproof warm house mounted at the queuing area, allowing visitors to take a break from freezing weather while enjoying the park’s scenery.

Saturday also marks the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. Just one hour after the park opened, the queue for the Super Ice Slide stretched hundreds of meters.

In addition to ice-and-snow landscapes, the park offers fantasy shows, virtual reality experiences and an immersive digital art museum.

An aerial drone photo shows a view of the Harbin Ice-Snow World in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Dec. 21.

The “Snow Disco” event, which attracted thousands of tourists last winter, returns to the Dream Stage this year.

While an entrance ticket is priced at 328 yuan (US$45.6) per adult, there are discounted tickets and free admission for certain groups of visitors.

Harbin Ice-Snow World, one of China’s iconic winter attractions, received over 2.7 million tourists last year, as winter tourism boomed across China.

Last year, China recorded over 385 million winter leisure visits nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 38%, with related revenue up 50%. In Harbin alone, last snow season saw over 87 million visitors, up 300% year on year, bringing 124.8 billion yuan in tourism revenue, five times more than the previous year.

The Chinese Government has recently unveiled a slew of initiatives, including increasing flight routes and optimizing visa-free policies, to attract more domestic and international visitors to boost tourism. (Xinhua)