Where winter takes shape

After sunset, illuminated Chinese characters, pagodas and facsimiles of the Great Wall can be seen high on the mountaintops. And video promos for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which China will host, are projected on a sheer cliff side.

Some of the objects, figures and structures seem almost ironic, such as ice skaters and hotpot sculpted from ice, and snowmen made of strings of lights standing next to lanterns made of snow.

Penguins fashioned from snow waddle at the foot of a 40-meter-high frozen waterfall, which is arguably the seasonal festival's main natural attraction.

The festival ranked among the 10 most popular short-distance-trip destinations nationwide during the recent Spring Festival holiday, according to China's largest online travel provider, Trip.com.