With ticket prices unchanged despite the venue reaching a record-breaking size, Harbin Ice and Snow World, one of China's most crowded winter tourist destinations, recently unveiled new highlights for the upcoming season.

　　Harbin Ice and Snow World is a theme park featuring ice-and-snow art and interactive displays. It has been 26 years since the event first opened in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Compared with the attraction's previous area of 1 million square meters, the 27th, or the 2025-26 Harbin Ice and Snow World, will be expanded to 1.2 million square meters, the largest increase in scope.

　　Along with the increased area, the volume of ice and snow used for the park will also rise to 400,000 cubic meters. To ensure the ice-built landscapes in the park are completed on schedule, 200,000 cubic meters of stored ice will be used in construction. Later, the ice collected from the Songhua River will also be utilized for the creation of the park's scenic displays.

　　Although the deep winter has not yet arrived, "timely and foresighted" preparations, particularly its expansion, are under way, Liu Simin, an expert with the Tourism Research Centre of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

　　"Its expansion is the result of analyzing the site's historical tourist data, tourist demand and the characteristics of the seasonal tourism market. For example, most outdoor tourism events during the winter are ice-and-snow-related. The park's upgrade has to be facilitated before its opening," Liu told the Global Times.

　　During the 2024-25 season, in the first 20 days after opening, Harbin Ice and Snow World received 1.03 million visitors. A reception staff member with the park surnamed Luo told the Global Times that for the 2025-26 season, many visitors "have already called to inquire about ticket prices and its opening date." "Our phone buzzes non-stop starting from December every year."

　　Given its increased scale, the site's other upgrades also include new picture-perfect sculptures featuring iconic buildings from around the globe, city landmarks, and classic fairy tale IPs, all recreated from ice and snow. It will also introduce more interactive activities such as an "ice-collecting festival" and a "hot spring campsite," which will be launched for the first time.

　　Wen Ji, a tourist from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, told the Global Times that after visiting the park in 2023, the ice sculptures and snow scenery "are no longer novel" to her. "But a 'hot spring' amid the snow sounds intriguing and makes me want to visit the park again."

　　"No matter how special they are, scenery alone cannot attract repeat visitors. The key is to provide people with contrasting and immersive visiting experiences," Liu told the Global Times. He also added that the site should "go beyond physical expansion" to create "an all-round ice-snow ambiance by integrating with nearby sites."

　　Including Harbin Ice and Snow World, other sites such as the Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo, the Harbin Songhua River Ice and Snow Carnival and Yabuli Ski Resort are puzzle pieces that reveal how winter tourism is thriving in Harbin.

　　During the 2025-26 season, the Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo will feature more than 260 snow sculptures, including ice-and-snow landscapes such as "Pandas playing in the snow." Covering an area of 1.45 million square meters, the Harbin Songhua River Ice and Snow Carnival will offer over 60 entertainment activities, including "snow drifting."

　　Led by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Heilongjiang Province, an agenda under the theme of "hundred-day action" was recently deployed. It aims to elevate the province's winter tourism with the aim of making it a world-class ice and snow destination.

　　According to the agenda, the Yabuli Ski Resort will commence its season on Friday. Meanwhile, over 20 ski resorts across the province are launching more than 70 trails of varying difficulty, catering to both professional and amateur skiers.

　　Apart from experiencing the snow, the province will also launch sport-related tourist routes. Taking the "Heilongjiang Ice Training Center + Harbin Cultural Park" route as an example, these curated routes connect competition venues from the Asian Winter Games with surrounding scenic spots, allowing tourists to experience the province's unique cultural tradition rooted in winter sports.

　　"The concept of 'ice and snow' tourism has transformed. It is no longer limited to frozen attractions but has become a pillar propelling holistic local tourism growth. From a certain perspective, this constitutes an industrial upgrade," Zhu Xun, a marketing expert in the tourism industry, told the Global Times.