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Harbin, capital of China's northernmost province Heilongjiang boasts a repository of some amazing old Russian architecture. That makes it worth a visit anytime of the year, but it's in winter that the city really comes alive.
While most wintertime holidaymakers rush south to balmy beaches, Harbin provides the polar opposite type of vacation destination.
The Yichun municipal government was in Beijing recently to promote tourism, and kick off a "Chinese Couples Festival".
The fun heats up when the mercury drops for people living in Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces. Those who snuggle up in the warm indoors miss out on the skiing, snowboarding, dogsledding, winter swimming, ice and snow sculpture viewing - not to mention enjoying such novelties as slurping a bubbling hotpot in an eatery made of ice.
When snow birds flock to warmer climes in Hainan, bolder travelers head to the spectacular Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, in northeastern Heilongjiang province.
The 12th Heilongjiang International Skiing Festival will open on Dec 12 in Harbin, the provincial capital.
Imagine a place where snow blankets the earth for more than half the year, where -35 C is considered a "warm" winter day and where the sun begins its descent at 3 pm.
Known as the 'Oriental Moscow', Harbin has always been regarded as a unique and exotic city.
"It's -40 C here today," my tour guide said in an unsettling tone on the phone from Mohe. It didn't help to hear that one of our reporters in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province and home of the Snow and Ice Festival, considered it too cold to join our team further north.
On the outskirts of Beijing, about 10 ski areas are in operation, most of them using artificial snow to lure weekend daytrippers, as the region's winters have seen less and less precipitation.
In the hinterland of northeast China's Daxinganling Range, lives a mysterious minority who raise reindeer. They are China's last hunting tribe, the Ewenki ethnic group.
While traditionally the Spring Festival is about staying home for a family reunion and a sumptuous dinner, taking a trip with family members can also be a nice choice.