A time for discovery

Spring Festival is the same yet different, shaped by where you come from — not only within China, but around the world. For most Chinese people, it's first and foremost about returning to hometowns for family reunions. For many expats, for whom returning to their home countries during this time often proves impractical, it's a chance to explore more of China outside the cities in which they work and live. Some foreigners run toward the sun to escape the cold. Some dash through the snow to embrace deep winter experiences. Yet others seek a Goldilocks balance, pursuing cool destinations that are not too hot, not too cold, but just right — and just as fun. China Daily looks at some of the top spots that expats visit to enjoy the seasonal festivities, and go further in their explorations of the country and its culture.

COLD|HEILONGJIANG

Entering a frozen wonderland

No matter the season, merely mention Heilongjiang province, and ice and snow are the first things that come to mind for many.

The province truly embodies winter during its world-famous ice-lantern festival in the capital, Harbin. Multistory buildings made of packed snow and populated with technicolor ice sculptures appear as a fantastical frozen kingdom. The Harbin Ice-Snow World is a 1.2-square-kilometer realm that seems larger than life — and the park that contains it. Here, 400,000 cubic meters of frozen water are transformed into virtually any and every kind of noun imaginable.

These frosty forces continue to reign over the first days of Spring Festival.

While ancient ice lanterns were filled with candles, "ice gourds" today brim with slushy booze. Hollowed-out melons are filled with baijiu (sorghum liquor) and fruit juice, and frozen, so the slurry sloshes inside its own crackling, edible, iced "cup".

Those seeking winter condensed into its purest form make the journey to "China's North Pole", Mohe. Here, you can witness the ethereal aurora borealis dance to the symphony of silent stars over Beiji village or feed the namesake ruminants of Reindeer Village.

In Mudanjiang, you can wander through the enchanting snow-draped cottages of China Snow Town, a settlement that appears partly like Northern Europe and partly like a fairy tale, yet is entirely and authentically Chinese.

Visitors can observe the majestic prowl of over 700 Siberian tigers and other big cats at Harbin's Siberian Tiger Park, or swoosh down the slopes of Yabuli, which ranks among Asia's premier ski resorts.

Or, they can steep in a sublime contrast — soaking in outdoor hot springs in Heihe or Daqing, where steam rises to meet the falling snow around the point where liquid and solid water meet and transform into vanishing wisps of vapor.

Heilongjiang shows winter may be something to escape to, rather than from, especially to appreciate its end and the start of spring.