Together with Central Street, St Sophia and Sun Island it is Harbin's winter grammar. Russian bread and sausage are the day's calories; ice lanterns are the reason for the evening. Temperatures sit around minus twenty. Kit is not a style choice. It is the first thing after the ticket.
The theme changes yearly. The scale is in the millions of square metres. The ice slides are long, and so are the queues. Treat heat packs, gloves and a charged battery as infrastructure. The best photograph is at blue hour, when the lamps have just come on and the sky has not gone fully dark.
The park exists for one season. In spring it melts, like an architecture exhibition that was allowed to disappear. If you are going, go in winter.
