Harbin was one of the hottest travel destinations and cultural exporters during the winter of 2023-2024. A year later, did it make a comeback, or was it a fad?
On 27 January, it was reported that the Harbin Ice and Snow World theme park had received a record-breaking 2 million visits during the winter since opening on 21 December. It reached over 1 million visitors in 20 days, also breaking a record. The ’Arbin boom last snow season saw 2.71 million visitors, quadrupling 2022-2023 levels. Air travel data also showed that during “chunyun” (春运, Spring Festival travel rush) Harbin Taiping International Airport had transported over 1.09 million travellers, breaking daily records by 9 times and at its peak had over 95,000 travellers a day.
Coinciding with a boom in ice and snow sports this winter, Harbin, and the entire Northeast China (or Dongbei, if referring to the local culture) have experienced interest from visitors and marketers alike. From Rednote’s (fka Xiaohongshu or RED) Snowman Festival in Altay, Xinjiang and Harbin, the lifestyle platform brings skiers and snow lovers to various activities. Luckin Coffee brought a pan-Dongbei frozen pear flavour across the country, in collaboration with the long-running Dongbei soap opera Love Stories in the Countryside. Midea, the electrical appliance manufacturer brought a pavilion to the Ice and Snow World to present a “Hawaii in the Northeast”. Meituan the food delivery platform also released a video paying tribute to the “special forces” travellers in Harbin.
Last year, we pointed out that Harbin is different from the likes of Zibo and Tianshui in that it was already a popular destination for ice and snow travel before it went viral with the “small potatoes” memes. Zibo’s barbeque did come back to an extent in the summer of 2024, but Tianshui’s malatang seemed to struggle to differentiate from similar dishes after its viral popularity. Harbin has successfully used the awareness raised by last year’s viral memes but also harnesses the ice and snow activities boom to top last year’s high.
