In China's 'ice city,' ice harvest sets stage for winter tourism season

Harbin has leveraged its long winter to ignite the winter tourism fever in the past few years, with a record-breaking 90.35 million visitors last winter. The total tourist spending in the city amounted to 137.22 billion yuan (about $19.4 billion), up 16.6 percent year on year.

"This winter, Harbin will integrate ice and snow with study tours, sports and technology to build a high-quality winter tourism supply system," said Wang Hongxin, director of the city's culture, radio, television and tourism department. "We aim to make the city a top winter destination for more travelers and continue driving the growth of China's ice-and-snow economy."

China plans to develop its ice-and-snow economy into a new growth sector, targeting an economic scale of 1.2 trillion yuan by 2027 and 1.5 trillion yuan by 2030, according to guidelines issued by the General Office of the State Council in November 2024.

With its booming ice-and-snow tourism, Northeast China, including Heilongjiang province, has gained fresh appeal. Once known as the country's rustbelt, the region has long struggled with a painful economic transition and talent outflows.

Notably, the market size of the ice-and-snow economy in this province reached 266.17 billion yuan in 2024, with ice-and-snow tourism contributing 182.33 billion yuan, according to the provincial bureau of statistics.