Northern highlights

The coolest tourist attractions are in Heilongjiang, which is warming up for a record influx of visitors eager to sample the latest lures in this hotspot of the cold season

Acrystal-clear castle carved from ice. Red-crowned cranes that swim through the skies. White waterfalls frozen in time - literally. A red-clad Santa in a Christmas village.

These are a few of the shades in Heilongjiang province's winter palette.

The area's appeal is forged by freezing temperatures and ice formations, making it as unique as each of the countless snowflakes that cover its terrain.

The white stuff arrived in Mohe county early last month, and it typically stays 120 days.

Winter tourism surged last year when China's northernmost province introduced five tour routes featuring skiing, hot springs, seasonal landscapes and polar experiences in such destinations as Yabuli, Mohe, Daqing and Qiqihar.

Tourists paid 9 million visits to the province during the last Spring Festival, up 31 percent compared with the same period the previous year, the provincial tourism authority reports. Tourism income grew 14 percent to 10.7 billion yuan ($1.6 billion; 1.44 billion euros; 1.29 billion).

Major sites, of course, get the bulk of the annual influx.

Sun Island's snow sculpture exhibition received half a million visits, up 8.3 percent year-on-year. Yabuli's ski resorts got 450,000, up 26.5 percent. And 560,000 visits were recorded in Xuexiang village, up 7.24 percent.

So Heilongjiang is introducing new itineraries to draw even more visitors this year.

"We're paying more attention to the integration of ice, snow and culture," says Heilongjiang's tourism authority director Xi Dongguang.

Local authorities have organized more than 100 major events, featuring sports, culture and photography.

Major parks will host activities. Travelers can zip along frozen water via ice chutes, dogsleds and snowmobiles.

Jingpo Lake offers ice fishing. Visitors can hunt in Heihe. Yichun's forests will host a cross-country running race.

Yichun will also stage a photography competition to capture rime-glazed landscapes, snow-draped forests and frigid villages in the Great Khingan Mountains.

An international oil-painting trade center recently opened in Heilongjiang's capital, Harbin. It claims to be the largest of its kind in northeastern Asia and hosts pieces from Russia, Poland and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Visitors can buy works, watch artists create and learn more about the genre in general.

Hengdaohezi town's visitors can experience Russian customs and architecture, and find out about China Eastern Railway's historical development.

Northern European Christmas culture finds a home in the Far East in Mohe's Beiji village - China's northernmost settlement.

Mudanjiang's Jingpo Lake will integrate animistic traditions with a biting-cold climate this December, when its Shaman Village opens as a new attraction.

The destination aspires to infuse traditional Manchu customs with wintertime entertainment.

Travelers can stay in wooden cabins and visit sacrificial altars, practice archery and ride in horse-drawn open sleighs.

They can dine on Manchu cuisine, including hotpot and fresh fish soup.

Harbin's Ice and Snow World will feature electric carts and sled chairs this year. Visitors will also be able to roll over ice in inflatable tubes.

There will be ice chutes to blast down mountainsides. The seasonal attraction is also creating a new "little sibling" which will operate year-round.

The city's Volga Manor will offer classes in such Russian customs as crafting nesting dolls and baking. It will also open a Russian art museum and ski resort.

A large-scale "winter world" in Hulan River's wetlands will open to the public.

Visitors can ski over 200,000 square meters, explore a 25-meter-high artificial iceberg and zoom down an 800-meter ice chute. It will also host virtual-reality experiences and automobile shows.

Visitors can explore Daqing on hovercraft that glide across the snow, and they can play ice golf or dip into steamy hot springs.

Qiqihar will get athletic with hockey, as well as speed- and figure-skating competitions. The city will also stage cultural performances on snowy fields.

Wudalianchi will open a 30,000-square-meter hot spring area. Visitors can play golf in the snow and hike around woodlands and volcanoes.

They can also do ice fishing and ride snowmobiles.

Indeed, Heilongjiang has upped its ante as a dream destination for wintertime travelers looking for thrills and chills. It increasingly seems a great place to cash in on the cold.

yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 11/11/2016 page21)