Harbin International Ice Festival

For most people, Harbin will bring to mind China’s world-famous Ice and Snow Festival. In January and February every year, gargantuan ice and snow sculptures fill the city. Figures from folklore, towering ice castles and mythical dragons are some of the artwork you might see, sculpted from ice drawn from the frozen Songhua river. It gets even more surreal than that—ice mazes, ice slides and an ice lantern show also feature here. But, there’s more to this capital of China’s Heilongjiang province. Symbolic of the historical influx of Russian migrants into Harbin is the impressive Church of Saint Sophia and the Harbin New Synagogue, now a fascinating museum. The central street of Zhongyang Dajie also bears testimony to this Russian connection, with its classical architecture, assorted food and cobbled paths.