Harbin Snow and Ice Festival: Still open, events have been canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak

(CNN) – Annual 37 Harbin Snow and Ice Festival It continues as planned, although adjustments are made due to the novel coronavirus outbreak nearby.

Winter Festival, which is a huge event in the city of Northeast China Harbin In Heilongjiang Province, it attracted travelers from all over China And the world every December and January since 1985.

The festival was welcomed as planned as a sign of China’s success in containing and controlling the Coronavirus. Numerous restrictions were lifted across the country, as residents were able to travel freely within the borders of China.

Now, despite a small-scale outbreak in the nearby cities of Shenyang and Dalian, it has altered plans. While the festival is still open and visitors can buy tickets to walk and check out works of ice art, events and shows have been canceled. This included a planned group wedding that was supposed to take place on January 5. The event organizer confirmed the changes to CNN.

Ice sculptures at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province on January 5, 2021.

STR / AFP / Getty Images

“All visitors need to have strengthened precautions, present their health codes when entering the park, take their temperature, wear masks at all times, and maintain [safe] Distancing from others in the park, ”read a statement posted on the festival’s social media pages on December 29.

New Year’s Eve celebrations and fireworks display have also been canceled.

The health icons mentioned in the statement refer to the app every person in China should have on their phones to check that it is free of Covid-19. The app is also used to track contacts in case someone gets sick. Restrictions on domestic travel are starting to be lifted in some provinces As early as April 2020.

The annual festival is the largest of its kind in the world.

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Every year, workers pull blocks of ice from the Songhua River, which artists use as materials for their creations. The pressure has always been high in the previous year, and 2021 highlights include a “crystal palace”, a fully functional 220-square-foot “ice bar” and a scale model of China’s first plane made entirely of snow.

It will be Beijing Hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics In conjunction with the northern snowy city of Zhangjiakou, making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Winter and Summer Games.

CNN Beijing correspondent Hana Zheng also contributed to this report.

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