Rather than heading south to warmer destinations like Hainan province and Yunnan province, Fu's family opted for a snowy retreat in Northeast China. Ice and snow tourism, led by cities such as Harbin in Heilongjiang province, has surged in popularity in recent years.

Visitors shared photos online of balls of cotton scattered over the bare ground and what appeared to be bedsheets intended to look like snow drifts on the rooftops, according to C