Beat the heat

The Harbin Grand Theater, built on an island in the city, stages over 1,000 music performances during the season. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Yichun will offer cross-country races, health and wetland excursions. The city is home to 4 million hectares of forests and is sliced by over 700 rivers.

Daqing has created new sports facilities and will stage marathons and dragon boat races, its tourism bureau says. It also hosts fruit-picking tours.

Jingpo Lake's visitors can experience Manchu culture. They can learn about unique herbal-cultivation traditions and dine upon fish at a traditional "eight-bowl feast".

Cycling events will be staged around the lake in mid-June.

The lake is also flanked by a Taoism heritage site.

Heilongjiang's tourism authority has been working with China CYTS Tours Holding Co for years to develop new routes.

The province recommended five summer itineraries in May of last year, featuring volcanoes, wetlands, China's easternmost and northernmost points, forests and city life.

Tourists paid over 1.53 million visits to Harbin in August, up 14.6 percent over the previous year, Heilongjiang's tourism authority reports.

More than 1.24 million elderly people visited the country's easternmost settlement, Fuyuan, last summer, a 90 percent increase.

All five itineraries have been upgraded this year. For example, wetland tours in Jingpo and Khanka lakes have been added.

Major car-rental company Shenzhou Zhuanche will explore driving routes, Vice-President Long Jie says.

Most rentals in Heilongjiang are for 10 days, rather than three to five as is the average span in most of the country, Long says.

Air connectivity will also be improved. New airports in Suifenhe, Wudalianchi and Jiansanjiang will soon join 11 already-operational airports connecting major cities around the country and such international destinations as Russia, South Korea and the United States.

About 4,300 kilometers of highway connect the province and major attractions.

The Harbin-Daqing-Qiqihar high-speed rail zips around Heilongjiang. High-speed rails from Northeast China's Liaoning's provincial capital, Shenyang, and Jilin's capital, Changchun, connect the region.

Tourism officials engaged netizens' questions in late May.

China CYTS Tours and group-buying companies Meituan and Dianping offered travel discounts in May and will again in August.

Indeed, tourism authorities are pulling out the stops to make Heilongjiang a cool place in every sense－that is, much more than just a destination to beat the heat in the sweaty summer season.

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn