Harbin Ice Festival is an annual event held in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province. Usually falling on January 5 and lasting a month, the festival exerts a strong draw on both local residents and visitors.

The city of Harbin makes the most of its freezing winters by hosting an impressive ice festival. Blocks of snow are carved into the shapes of plants and animals and lit from within to provide glittering lights of ice. At the end of the festival, everyone takes a mallet to the lanterns and smashes them up in the street!

The city boasts its neat, impressive, and artistic ice and snow sculptures, carvings, and buildings in parks and on frozen rivers. World famous monuments like some grand cathedrals, pyramids, Potala Palace, and the Great Wall are all carved out of ice, in spectacularly giant sizes! Some of them, embedded with colored lights, are designed for nighttime observation. Ice skating and skiing are popular activities.

The famous Ice Lantern exhibitions take place in Zhaolin Park every winter. The Harbin people and ice-carving artists create all kinds of ice-carving works every year, such as the ice tower, ice bridge, ice long corridor and ice pavilion and building and even the 12-year cycles are made with large ice.

Santa Sophia Church, built by Russians in 1907, is one of many Orthodox churches in Harbin. It has had its exterior restored and the interior, though also restored, has been left in its original state as much as possible. The result is said to be both subtle and beautiful. The city government of Harbin declared Santa Sophia Church a protected building in 1986. The church now houses the Harbin Architecture Arts Centre, which displays a photographic history of the city.

Santa Sophia Church is the largest Orthodox Church in the Far East. It is 53.55 meters high and covers a total area of 721 square meters. The church can contain over 2000 people. Santa Sophia Church is a typical building in Byzantine style. The mixture of Chinese and Russian culture is what makes the city so special and this is truly reflected in this structure. The main structure of the church is laid out as a Latin cross with the main hall topped with a huge green tipped roof. Under the bright sun, the church, together with the square around it, reminds the Chinese of the Red Square in Moscow. There are seven timepieces on the top of main entrance. The largest one weighs more than one ton. The timepieces sound seven notes. The arch wall shows famous murals painted by Russian artists.

Yabuli International Ski Resort, the site of the 1996 Asian Winter Games, is situated in the Yabuli Winding Village. It covers a total area of 23 square kilometers. It is 194 km east of Harbin and 120 km from Mudanjiang. Yabuli International Ski Resort is the largest comprehensive training spot in China. It is also the main tourist attraction in Harbin. During the period of Manchurian Qing Dynasty, the Yabuli International Ski Resort area was a hunting spot for royal family. With the development of society, it has become a large ski area with full, modern facilities and top class service.

Yabuli International Ski Resort is a 4 A-class national tourist attraction. It is not only well known as a ski resort, but is also renowned for its scenic beauty. It is a major part of Yabuli National Park. The maximum altitude of Yabuli International Ski Resort is 1374.8 meters. It is covered by high quality snow. Yabuli International Ski Resort has wonderful scenery in all four seasons. Much wildlife also inhabits the area, such as deer, bears, and pheasants. It was granted National Park status in 1993. In 1996, the resort was chosen to host the 3rd Asian Winter Games. Because of the agreeable climate and favorable terrain and surroundings, Yabuli International Ski Resort has become a multifunction center for tourism, sports, leisure activities and scientific research.

Center Street was established in 1898. It got this name in 1925. Center Street is the most prosperous business center in Harbin. It has 71 buildings with construction in European style. It covers 13 building with the characteristics of Renaissance, Baroque, Eclecticism and modernization styles.

Those buildings contain the four-construction genre of western constructional culture history. After several changes by local government, it became the longest walking street in 1997.

Center Street is well known as the first street in Harbin. The length spans 1450 meters and the width is more than 21meters. Many famous tourist attractions spread in Center Street, such as the Old Street, Protection Street, Symbol Street, Business Street, Walking Street, Recreation Street, the Public Culture Street and Migration Street. There are various department stores, restaurants, grand ballrooms, movie theaters and bars. Visitors can appreciate these typical buildings and their romantic atmosphere in the evening. During the period of the Snow Carving Festival, there are many fascinating Ice Carvings standing on the both sides of the street. The tourist can enjoy the mystical, enchanting scenery of the snowy world. Center Street is a charming landscape covering relaxation, tourism, shopping and business in Harbin.

Siberia Tigers Park is the world’s biggest artificial propagation base for Siberian tigers. It was opened in 1996 on Sun Island in order to protect the endangered tiger and provide for further research. Its mission is to study, breed, release, and ultimately save the Manchurian tiger from extinction. Siberia Tigers Park is situated on the northern bank of the Song Hua River. It covers a total area of 1.4 million square meters.

Siberia Tigers Park is a large recreational district for tourists. It has 500 purebred Manchurian Tigers of different ages. The natural scenery of Siberia Tigers Park is fascinating and vigorous. Visitors can watch the robust Siberia tigers anywhere. The park also reserves lots of lions. They live peacefully with the tigers. Siberia Tigers Park is open for tourists daily. The tourist can enjoy 10 tourist attractions and hundreds of purebred Siberia Tigers. It takes about one and half hours for tourists to tour the whole park. In addition to the bus that takes people around the park with ease, there is a walking area and a tiger-watching platform. The visitor can meander through groups of tigers and appreciate adventurous and exciting scenes, with a special guide’s help.

The staff of Siberia Tigers Park breeds them in captivity. Eventually, the tigers will be released into their natural habitat.