When snow birds flock to warmer climes in Hainan, bolder travelers head to the spectacular Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, in northeastern Heilongjiang province.
Think Beijing is cold? Think again. There is a place where not blinking fast enough can make your eyelashes seal together with frost. Here, people don ski masks not to rob a bank, but to keep the tips of their noses and the apples of their cheeks warm.
Travelers arriving by plane (a mere 90-minute flight from Beijing) or by the comfortable "Z" overnight train can start acclimating themselves to the cold with a daytime stroll down Zhongyang Dajie (Central Street). East meets West along these cobblestone pedestrian walks where shoppers can browse through a vast array of trendy goods housed in century-old buildings. Harbin's residents are known as much for their exuberant hospitality as for their excessive drinking and liberal fashion sense.
The Ren He underground mall and Sophia Golden Sun shopping center offer an extensive choice of clothing and accessories, from basement bargain prices to upscale Korean-import ones.
A trip to the Central Street area is incomplete without a stop at the Modern Ice Creamery. Locals pack the narrow dining hall and can't seem to get enough of its secret ice cream recipe, regardless of the season. For a more substantial (and warmer) meal, go for chun bing - vegetable and meat dishes wrapped in pancakes - at Lao Chang Chun Bing.
When night falls, a winter wonderland comes to life. The main attraction this time of the year is the Ice and Snow World, where ice sculptures are set across a large park area just north of the Songhua River. Giant blocks of ice are farmed from the river, hauled to the site, and built into world landmarks familiar to the frequent traveler.
When you have tired of gaping at the sculptures with awe, or of rubbing your hands and stomping feet to stay warm, head to the many igloo tea shops scattered around the park. Other attractions include ice slides several stories tall, dance and music shows, and cheesy photo ops with snow foxes.
An hour in the Ice and Snow World leaves most travelers chilled to the bone. A dinner of hot pot can never seem more welcome. Cai Zhen Ji hot pot restaurant serves up the style and selections of Beijing's Ding Ding Xiang, but at second-tier city prices. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. So, when in Harbin, remember to order plenty of Harbin Beer and baijiu for endless rounds of toasts with friends.
Following a day exploring icy man-made wonders, a nature expedition of sorts makes for an interesting diversion. The Siberian Tiger Park was once a dingy little zoo where morbid tourists could purchase live cows and watch the feeding frenzy from the safety of an iron-barred bus.
It is easy to get to from the ice festival by taxi or bus. The park houses about 100 of the less than 500 animals that remain in the world. While the intent of the park is conservation, it's hard to imagine how tigers trained to wait for tourists "on safari" to drive through and throw chickens could be reintroduced to the wild.
The World Bank recently urged an international tiger-conservation congress to ban private tiger parks, so this entertainment may be worth seeing while it lasts.
Winter swimming has been a longstanding Harbin tradition, drawing many enthusiasts who rave about the health benefits of polar plunging into -30 C waters. The less adventurous can stand on the sidelines and watch as middle-aged swimmers strut their stuff on the frozen surface of Songhua River before diving off a platform made of, you guessed it, blocks of ice.
A panoply of less extreme diversions can be found on the banks of the Songhua River, just outside the polar swimming hole - dog sledding, horse carts and tops spun with long whips. The strangest contraption here, which attracts a surprising number of customers, is a chair set atop sharp blades, which a rider can propel using short ski poles.
To celebrate the bravado of two days of traipsing through ice and snow, finish with a meal at Da Quan Shao Kao, where everything from enoki mushrooms to larvae, as well as the more conventional lamb chunks, comes on a barbecued skewer. A few more rounds of ganbei and you might start to think that the cold isn't all that bad for a winter voyage!