Tourists visit an ice-and-snow pavilion at Harbin Ice-Snow World park in Harbin, northeast China"s Heilongjiang Province, on July 21, 2026. (Xinhua/Na Yuqi)

　　Alejandra Palacios found herself moving from summer heat to winter chill in just a matter of minutes. One moment, she was strolling in almost 30-degree-Celsius warmth in summer clothes; the next, she was bundled in a thick down jacket as the temperature plunged to around minus 10 degrees Celsius.

　　Inside an ice-and-snow pavilion at Harbin Ice-Snow World in northeastern China, the Nicaraguan visitor wiped the fog from her phone lens to reveal an ice-carved castle and cathedral glowing in violet-blue light. Snowflakes drifted down as tourists swooshed down ice slides on rubber tubes.

　　"They"ve brought winter into summer, and carved the ice into something so magnificent and delicate. It"s astonishing," she said.

　　Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, is known as China"s "Ice City" for its freezing winters, ice sculptures and winter sports. After the outdoor section of Harbin Ice-Snow World, the world"s largest ice-and-snow theme park, closed this February, its indoor ice-and-snow pavilion took over, offering visitors a cool escape from the summer heat.

　　According to Sun Zemin, deputy marketing director at Harbin Ice and Snow World Co., Ltd., the pavilion opened in the summer of 2024. The 23,800-square-meter venue maintains an interior temperature of between minus 8 and minus 12 degrees Celsius and uses about 20,000 cubic meters of ice.

　　"The pavilion features natural ice harvested from the Songhua River in winter and preserved at low temperatures in sealed storage, as well as colored ice, bubble-free ice and frozen roses made by ice-making factories," Sun added.