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The largest ice and snow festival in the world – the annual Harbin International Ice and Snow festival - is an annual winter festival that takes place with a theme in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China is to open in late December and continue for around two months.

The official opening ceremony is predicted to be on January 5th, 2023, but the ice and snow sculptures are open to public viewing around the Christmas period of 2022. The exhibitions and entertainment are mainly in the Ice and Snow World, the biggest venue in Harbin. There is no closing ceremony for this festival but the ice melts in March.

At first, participants in the festival were mainly Chinese, however it has since become an international festival and competition, with the festival attracting 18 million visitors and generating 28.7 billion yuan (U$4.4 billion) of revenue

The city's ice and snow culture traces back 60 years ago, and today, the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival is the largest and most extraordinary of its kind in the world.

Main tourist attractions of the festival include the Ice Lantern Art Fair in Zhaolin Park, Ice and Snow World, Sun Island, Yabuli Ski Resort, Ice and Snow Carnival, Sunac Snow Park, Volga Manor and Polar Park, etc.

This winter, Harbin's ice and snow festival focuses on three chapters, namely "Meet in the Ice City", "Ice and Snow Songs" and "Charm of Spring Snow", with the theme of "Celebrating 60 years of ice and snow culture towards a new future". The festival lasts for almost five months from early December to the middle of April next year and involves eight major parts of more than 100 key activities.

Diversified ice and snow sports are the most popular outdoor activities in winter for Harbin citizens. Widely hailed as the cradle and "signal lights" of China's winter sports, Harbin is the only city in China that enjoys the reputation of "City of Ice and Snow Sports". Thanks to its exceptional ice and snow resources and a long history of ice and snow culture, it has contributed numerous outstanding athletes to various winter sports events.

During the 2022 Winter Olympics, Harbin athletes Ren Ziwei, Zhang Yuting, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong won a total of three gold medals for China, and Harbin was therefore granted the commemorative title of "City of Olympic Champions" by the Chinese Olympic Committee. Colourful ice and snow sports events and popular fitness activities have shown the charm of Harbin's ice and snow culture to the whole world.

After the 2022 Winter Olympics, Harbin works to fulfill China's commitment to "engage 300 million people in ice and snow activities" and has announced the goal of building an "international city of ice and snow sports events" in its government work report.

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