As winter returns to northeastern China, the 27th Harbin Ice and Snow World (第二十七届哈尔滨冰雪大世界) officially reopened on 17 December.
The large-scale seasonal attraction’s most ambitious edition to date integrates technology, storytelling, and visitor-centred design. Covering 1.2 million sqm and using more than 400,000 cubic metres of ice and snow, this year’s park is the largest in its history.
The new season also represents a shift from spectacle-driven tourism to a more intelligent, narrative-led and service-oriented destination, aligning Harbin’s flagship winter attraction with global trends in immersive cultural experiences.
Intelligent destination design: a lighter, more intuitive visit
Technology now underpins almost every layer of the visitor journey. The park’s official mini app serves as a digital concierge, allowing guests to purchase tickets, access real-time navigation, check restaurant queues, and view live updates on restroom availability.
AI-powered virtual assistants provide instant responses to visitor queries, reducing friction in a traditionally complex environment.
Rather than presenting technology as a novelty, Harbin Ice and Snow World uses it to enable comfort and autonomy, giving visitors greater control over how they move through the park. In a climate where temperature and crowd flow matter, this move towards ‘invisible intelligence’ reflects a maturing approach to innovative scenic-area management.
From observation to participation: AI as a creative tool
Beyond efficiency, technology is increasingly used to reshape the experience itself. A newly introduced AI interaction zone allows visitors to move from passive spectators to active creators.
Using laser-based intelligent carving systems, guests can design and produce personalised ice sculpture souvenirs in just three minutes, translating creative ideas directly into physical form.
Elsewhere in the park, AI cameras, video capture stations, and digital customisation kiosks allow visitors to package memories into personalised content and merchandise.
Immersive attractions such as the Ice Dragon Quest VR experience and the ‘One Ice, One World’ artificial intelligence-generated content art gallery blend virtual and physical environments, enabling multi-layered encounters with ice aesthetics, mythology and digital art.
Storytelling through ice: from city memory to global dialogue
If technology forms the park’s infrastructure, storytelling provides its emotional architecture. This season’s theme, “Ice and Snow Fairyland”, unfolds across three narratives that link Harbin’s urban identity, Chinese civilisation and global cultural exchange.
The main entrance, modelled after Harbin’s historic railway station, recalls the city’s origins as a crossroads shaped by mobility and exchange. The central ice tower, the largest single ice structure ever built at the park, anchors the site both physically and symbolically. Each evening, visitors participate in a lighting ritual.
Elsewhere, reconstructed Chinese-Baroque style streetscapes capture the layered history of Harbin as a meeting point between Eastern and Western aesthetics. Performance zones extend this narrative, from large-scale ice shows and international dance performances to the fantasy production The King’s Chariot. This uses sound, lighting and projection.
The route to the park’s iconic ice slides introduces another narrative layer. This year, the slides incorporate motifs from the Great Wall. Cultural elements from guest provinces and partner cities appear along the way, positioning the park as a platform for inter-regional and international artistic dialogue.
Sun Zemin, deputy director of marketing at Harbin Ice and Snow World, said: “We want to use the language of ice and snow to express Harbin’s character, while helping visitors from different places find a sense of belonging here.”
Hardware, comfort and global readiness
Behind the scenes, significant upgrades have been made to support growing international audiences. Service facilities have been reorganised for efficiency, with the addition of premium restrooms and women-only facilities. Multilingual ticketing machines, multilingual audio guides and staff trained in foreign languages aim to remove barriers for overseas visitors.
The park’s evolution also reflects a broader strategic transition. The completion of four-season ice and snow projects, including the world’s largest indoor ice-themed park, the Dream Ice and Snow Pavilion, has broken the limits of seasonality. Ice culture in Harbin is no longer confined to winter, but operates year-round as a cultural and commercial system.
Harbin Ice and Snow World’s latest upgrade represents more than a refreshed winter attraction. It demonstrates how large-scale cultural tourism IPs can evolve through technology-driven experience design, layered storytelling and meticulous service planning.
The park is investing in long-term relevance – positioning itself as a destination that is smarter, more immersive and more inclusive. In doing so, it offers a compelling case study of how seasonal attractions worldwide can transition to sustainable, experience-led growth without losing the emotional power that made them iconic in the first place.
As ice silently reshapes itself each winter, Harbin’s frozen city continues to tell a story – one that now speaks not only of cold and wonder, but of intelligence, cultural identity and the future of immersive destinations.
Images courtesy of Harbin Ice and Snow World
