In China's 'ice city,' ice harvest sets stage for winter tourism season

HARBIN -- On a frozen stretch of the Songhua River, China's "ice city" Harbin opened its annual ice-harvesting festival on Sunday, signaling the start of a bustling winter tourism season for the northeastern city.

Wrapped in red cotton coats, dozens of ice harvesters worked in tight formation, their metal chisels cracking in steady rhythm until a perfect, glistening slab loosened from the river's surface. Hooking it with iron poles, they dragged it ashore, where sunlight caught its polished edge and turned the block into a beam of silver.

The ice chunks, typically 1.6 meters long and 0.8 meters wide, are prized for their uniform density and clear texture. They were then loaded onto trucks and transported across Harbin, where they will be carved into slides, castles and other landmarks in the capital of Heilongjiang province.

Over the next month, nearly 1,000 workers will carve, lift and haul up to 10,000 cubic meters of ice each day.

Sunday also marked Daxue, or Major Snow, the traditional Chinese solar term signaling the approach of deep winter. Local meteorologists say the river ice typically thickens to more than 30 centimeters after Daxue, meeting the ideal standard for harvesting.