World leading ice and snow theme park reopens

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The Ice and Snow World in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, reopened for trial operation on Sunday.

Covering 600,000 square meters, the winter wonderland has more than 30 interactive entertainment areas and hundreds of events to welcome tourists.

Staff at the theme park said the warm climate in winter had posed challenges in building the park.

Tourists visit illuminated ice sculptures at Ice and Snow World in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. /VCG Photo

It took 15 days to build the ice and snow theme park with 110,000 cubic meters of ice and 120,000 cubic meters of snow.

To celebrate the anniversary, it will present former ice and snow landscapes from the past 20 years.

The number of popular 320-meter-long ice slides will increase from three to six this year. A queuing system app will be available for tourists to efficiently arrange queuing times.

Tourists visit illuminated ice sculptures at Ice and Snow World in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. /VCG Photo

In addition, Harbin has seen a record number of air passengers this year, according to the Taiping International Airport. The annual passenger throughput of the airport in the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in 2018 crossed the threshold of 20 million on Monday, a new historical high and nearly double the figure from five years ago.

Known as an "ice city", Harbin has gained international attention for its increasingly popular winter extravaganza, which features massive, elaborate ice sculptures, competitions and winter sports.

(Cover: Tourists visit illuminated ice sculptures at Ice and Snow World Park in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, December 23, 2018. /VCG Photo)

(With inputs from Xinhua)