China Snow Town: Demand stays hot despite recent controversy

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Northeast China offers a festive mood and beautiful landscapes this time of year. One popular winter destination is an area featuring thick, abundant snow. CGTN's Cui Hui'ao tells us more from the China Snow Town in Heilongjiang Province.

Traditional rice cooking, joyful family-bonding time and hundreds of guesthouses covered in snow. This is Chinese New Year at the China Snow Town.

Liu Yuanyuan, a local who has been running this guest house for nearly 20 years, is looking forward the upcoming festival.

LIU YUANYUAN, OWNER LIUCHANGFU GUEST HOUSE "All the rooms are booked for the days after the Lunar New Year's Eve. That means it will be hectic for us again. This means getting up at 5 and making breakfast for guests, doing all the cleaning, and staying up late past midnight."

Liu says the biggest difference she sees in the town from thirty years ago is that the snow is not nearly as heavy as before. It used to be impossible to even get her foot out of the door because of the snow.

Less snow has actually drawn more tourists. Nowadays the so-called homeland of snow in China draws thousands of visitors everyday, with its famous snowscape. Differing from other snowy areas, the snow here is known for its high density caused by interaction between warm current and cold fronts that results in a unique scenery.

FANG LISHENG TOURIST "We came from Beijing. It was quite an ordeal to travel here, but we were so drawn by the snow here, which looks like ice cream. Very pretty, and very thick, unlike other places we've been to."

Pure and white as the snow is, the reputation of this town was tainted by a WeChat post that went viral online last month, in which a tourist complained about being overcharged and treated rudely by one of the guesthouse owners.

That scandal, however, did not seem to have dissuaded all the tourists, at least not Wang Xin.

WANG XIN TOURIST "My boyfriend and I were worried about this trip because of the scam we heard from the news. But so far everything is very transparent. The guesthouse charged us the exact amount as we booked. Food and stuff are pretty reasonably priced here."

CUI HUI'AO SNOW TOWN, HEILONGJIANG PROVINCE "Put the scandal aside, one of the coolest ways to experience winter here is to go on a dog sled trip. And what makes it perfectly festive is that we are approaching the Year of the dog."

At night, the bonfire party is perhaps the highlight of the day. People are singing, and dancing around the fire. As well as a float parade, and fireworks. The big red lanterns hanging up in front of each house brighten the snow in night, making it a colorful wonderland. Cui Hui'ao CGTN, the Snow Town.