Ice Harvest Festival opens tourist season in China’s ice capital

In China, the opening of the 6th Harbin Ice Harvest Festival took place on the frozen Songhua River. Its motto, “Harvest the first ice – illuminate the future”, symbolises a creative reinterpretation of the centuries-old ice and snow culture, reports Dongbeiwang, a TV BRICS partner.

The city of Harbin is known as China’s ice capital due to its harsh climate, which allows one of the world’s largest ice and snow festivals to be held. This year, the festival traditionally opened the winter tourist season.

Hundreds of performers dressed in traditional ice-harvesters’ costumes performed the “ice harvesting dance” to the sound of drums. The head of the ice-harvesters’ community – the so-called Ice Elder – recited words of blessing, after which dozens of participants performed ancient songs that accompanied the extraction of the first ice of the 2025–2026 winter season. The culmination of the ritual was the handing of a red silk ribbon to the audience, symbolising good fortune and representing the continuous succession of generations.

The ice blocks obtained during the ceremony will be used in the snow installations of the Harbin Ice and Snow World park, which will open soon.

Visitors to the festival enjoyed a gastronomic fair and an exhibition of items of intangible cultural heritage. Participants took photographs against the backdrop of huge ice and snow compositions: a six-metre-high ice stupa, a sculpture resembling a lollipop, snow statues of an ice cream and a pear, as well as a giant snowman.

A snow exhibition on Sun Island (Taiyangdao – Sun Island, a national park) will also open in the city soon, and a snow marathon and ice races on dragon boats will take place.

The Ice Harvest Festival marked the beginning of a large-scale cultural and tourist celebration under the motto “Meeting winter, enjoying ice”. It attracts tourists from all over the world, introducing visitors to the unique atmosphere of wintertime China.

Photo: kitzcorner / iStock