Heilongjiang offers new routes to explore winter wonderland

A frozen waterfall in Jingpo Lake. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China's northernmost province, Heilongjiang, hopes to show how its snow glows and what makes its ice nice through five winter itineraries it announced earlier in November.

Winter tourism is expected to surge this year, following the announcement China will host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

"Ice-and-snow tourism has its own characteristics," says Zhang Lizhong, head of the China National Tourism Administration's tourism promotion and international cooperation division.

Visits to Heilongjiang surged during the season last year, but expectations are higher for the 2015-16 winter.

It is, after all, the kind of place Frozen could've been set in. Much of it looks like the typical landscapes you'd find in a snow globe.

The five routes can be booked through China's major online travel agencies, such as Ctrip, Tuniu and Aoyou.com, an online-booking website under China Youth Travel Service Co.

"We've already received many inquiries," says Huang Lina, product director of CYTS Linkage's tourism destination marketing department.

Group and individual packages last three to 10 days.