The Ice and Snow World show in the city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, one of the world’s largest ice festivals, has had more than 1 million visitors since it opened at the end of last year, according to the organizers, with 169,000 during the Lunar New Year holiday, Feb 7 - 13, for a nearly 17-percent increase from the same period a year ago.
Ice and snow world at the 32nd Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, on Jan 26. [Photo by Wang Mingming/asianewsphoto]

One centerpiece of the annual Festival, which opened on Jan 5 under a "Ice and Snow World" theme, consisted of ice and snow castles, with towers and slides, on a more-than-800,000-sq-m space, or about three times the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing. The park decorations called for a record 330,000 cubic meters of ice and snow then brought in 40 million yuan ($6.13 million) in revenues, up 17.46 percent from the same period a year ago.

Some of the ice designs have begun to thaw as temperatures rise, and some installations have been removed by now over growing concerns about the safety. The event will remain open until late February or early March, depending on the weather, the organizers say.