Ice-cutting festival heralds promising northeast China winter tourism-Xinhua

HARBIN, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — In the presence of a biting wind, fur-clad workers wielded steel chisels in tackling the frozen surface of the Songhua River, producing a large crystalline chunk of ice to the cheers of spectators in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province.

The ice chunk, dubbed the “first ice” of this year, was harvested amid the rhythmic chants of workers, signaling the start of Harbin’s annual ice-cutting season on the Songhua River, which winds through the city.

This year, this iconic ice-cutting festival in Harbin, one of China’s most popular ice-and-snow…