Going forward as planned, the festival was hailed as a sign of China’s success in containing and controlling the coronavirus. Many restrictions have been lifted across the country, allowing residents to travel freely within China’s borders.
Now, however, small outbreaks in cities near Shenyang and Dalian have changed plans. While the festival is still open and visitors can purchase tickets to see and check out works of ice art, events and performances have been canceled. It included a planned group wedding to be held in January. The organizer of one event confirmed the change to CNN.
Ice sculptures at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival on January 5, 2021 in Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China.
STR / AFP / Getty Images
“All visitors need to strengthen precautions, present their health code when entering the park, measure its temperature, wear a mask at all times and keep going. [safe] “Distance from others in the park,” read a statement shared on the festival’s social media pages on December 29th.
New Year’s Eve celebrations and a fireworks display were also called.
The annual festival is the largest of its kind in the world.
Each year, workers pull out blocks of ice from the Songua River, which artists use as materials for their creations. The pressure from a year ago is always on the rise, and the highlights of 2021 include the “Crystal Palace”, the 220-square-foot fully functional “Ice Ice” and the scale model of China’s first aircraft made entirely of ice.
CNN’s Hanna Zheng also contributed to the report in Beijing.
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