FLYING OVER A SNOW GLOBE

The biting cold of China's northernmost region makes it an ideal place to test choppers, especially to see how they perform at high latitudes and low temperatures.

In January, the country's northernmost settlement, Mohe, is experiencing many extremely cold days. Both land and sky are fiercely frigid.

Tears freeze before they can fall. People's eyelashes gather frost after just a couple of minutes outside. Not even thick cotton shoes can seal out the numbing bite of these extreme temperatures.

This weather makes the area ideal for test flying helicopters to see how they perform in such complex conditions — especially at very high latitudes, in extremely low temperatures.