Songhuajiang Wetland Festival, part of the 2017 Charming Harbin Summer event, opens in Harbin, Heilongjiang province on June 10. [Photo/hljtv.com]

The 2017 Charming Harbin Summer event, the largest summer tourism and culture festival in the city of Harbin, capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, opened on June 10, and will run until October.

The event features four themes: ecology, fashion, music and history.

The event is promoting a series of tourist destinations including Sun Island Wetland, Binjiang Wetland and Wuhua Mountain.

An international marathon will also take place during the festival, and Poseidon theme park, a newly-built attraction, will also be open to visitors.

The Harbin Summer Music Festival, which is part of the main event, will showcase the charms of Harbin，the birthplace of modern Chinese music, through a number of concerts held at Harbin Opera House and the New Music Hall.

Tourists will have the opportunity to experience the area’s history and visit sites such as Saint Sophia Cathedral, Volga Manor and Gogoli Bookstore.

Starting in 2012, the Charming Harbin Summer event has been playing a crucial role in driving the development of tourism in the city.

Statistics from Harbin Taiping International Airport reveal that the number of flights arriving and departing Harbin airport in 2016 hit 16 million, up from 9 million in 2012, and total tourism revenue for the summer tourist season hit 45.92 billion yuan ($6.87 billion), up from 24.43 billion yuan in 2012.

The city of Harbin came in at 19th place on a list of the world’s Top 100 Summer Resort Cities, joining Kunming, St Petersburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Melbourne; according to a list published by the International Cultural Geography Association in 2016.