Top 5 Winter Travel Destinations in China

What to visit for winter vacations in China? With a vast territory, China actually can dish up a host of wonderful wintertime travel destinations, from fantastic ice and snow festival in Harbin, Beijing cultural experience, snow-capped Yellow Mountain, to sunbathing in Sanya…

Harbin for Ice and Snow Festival 

Fantastic Harbin Ice and Snow World, China Winter Tours

Harbin, known as the “Icy City of China”，presents a wonder world of ice and snow in winter. Annually Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival features a range of ice-related activities – Ice Lantern Exhibition at the Zhaolin Park, Snow Sculpture Art Fair at Sun Island, Ice & Snow World and winter swimming on the Songhua River… Also, travelers can go high-mountain skiing in Yabuli for a great adventure tour.
 

Beijing for Cultural Experience 

Forbidden City in Snow, Beijing China

The best time to visit the Forbidden City? The locals would tell you – the winter. Covered in snow, the majesty of this grand palace is rather enhanced, and becomes more awe-inspiring. So is the Great Wall. Also, there are various cultural activities held in the temples and parks of Beijing during the Chinese New Year holiday usually from late January to early February.

Huangshan for Mountain Snowscape

Snowscape of Yellow Mountain, Huangshan Anhui

Huangshan city gets its name for the sacred “Yellow Mountain“. As one of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, it offers four wonders – spectacular rocky peaks, oddly shaped pines, crystal-clear hot springs and fantastic sea of clouds. When the snow settles on all these, the real charm of Yellow Mountain emerges. 


Yunnan for Warm Winter Locations

Charming Lijiang Old Town, Lijiang Yunnan

For travelers, Yunnan is without doubt a most-cited “dream destination”. It shows varied landscape all the year, from topical rainforest to snow-capped peaks. For its mild weather in winter, it attracts people to visit Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, and Xishuangbanna in the province.

Sanya for Seaside Winter Escape

Beautiful Seaside in Sanya, Hainan China

Sanya is the southernmost city in China. Blue sky, brilliant sunshine, white beach, clear seawater make Sanya into the best place for sunbath, sailing, and a winter escape etc. So, the city has earned the name of “Oriental Hawaii”. Also, Nantian Hot Spring offers many different options of pools to enjoy a relaxing spa.

China Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2012 Tours

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival which is annually launched on January 5, is one of the largest ice-carving festivals in the world, and features a range of ice-related activities including ice swimming, hot air ballooning, ice sculpture competitions, and various winter sports.

Winter outdoor swimming at Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival

Blocks of ice chainsawed from the Songhua River provide the material for the sculptures, and competitors use knives and saws to carve the large blocks into animals, mythical figures, buildings, or copies of artworks. Past sculptures have represented such things as castles, towers, the Statue of Liberty, the Great Wall of China, and an onion-domed Russian church. Teams of sculptors come from all over the world and their work – glowing from the neon tubes of purple, pink, blue and green that shine from inside – fills the city square.

Large buildings and sculptures made of ice at Harbin Ice and Snow World

The festival includes ice lantern and sculpture exhibitions. Thousands of ice lanterns, ice carvings and snow sculptures turn the city into a dreamlike world of pure whiteness and gleaming crystal. A highlight of the festival is the “Ice and Snow World” – the world’s largest amusement park devoted to ice and snow.

Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Fair

Temperature
Harbin is one of China’s coldest cities, located in the northeast province of Heilongjiang, where the mercury in January often drops to minus 20 degrees centigrade (-4F).

Best Time to Visit
Harbin Snow and Ice Sculpture festival begin officially on the second week of January annually till late February. But they are actually open to the visitors right after the Christmas, when ice lanterns are complete and 80% snow sculptures are done. By then, you can see sculptors working on them.

Ice Lantern Show at Zhaolin Park

Getting there
Travelers can fly in to Harbin from over a dozen domestic airports or take trains from some main cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin etc.. There are also international flights to Harbin from Hong Kong, Russia, Niigata, Seoul,  Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Los Angeles.

The Ice and Snow World opens from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, and the Snow Sculpture Expo opens from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.