Ice and snow tourism sector eyes record year

The tourism market in Northeast China, led by "ice city" Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, has become popular again this winter with upgraded facilities, after the city went viral online and achieved record tourism sales last year.

This winter, the Harbin Ice and Snow World theme park, which is set to open mid-December, plans to expand its area to 1 million square meters from 810,000 square meters last year. The number of ice and snow slides that are sought after by tourists will increase from 16 to 24, according to the local government.

Bookings of hotels in Harbin have jumped more than 50 percent year-on-year, and the search volume of travel products related to Harbin this month was threefold higher than last month, according to Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.