China's annual ice festival in the north eastern city of Harbin has stepped up its game with one of the world's largest displays of ice sculptures.
As the country gears up for the 2022 Winter Olympics, snow and ice tourism has been become a key focus alongside the frozen sculptures of animals, cartoon characters and famous landmarks.
The 36th festival, which officially opens on Thursday and last year drew more than a million visitors, showcases the region's tradition of snow and ice carvings as well as ice swimming in the Songhua River. Harbin's temperatures can fall to minus 25 degrees Celsius.
Harbin's best ice and snow carvers have been busy putting the finishing touches to their sculptures, which are based on big chunks of ice that are dragged out of the nearby river and carved, brushed, and lit up.
The sculptures range from animals and cartoon characters to replicas of famous world monuments and landscapes, as well as a 340-meter-long slide that state media say took around 500 builders to complete.
Lu Fu was helping to finish a giant ice castle on a busy roundabout in Harbin, brushing it with a small rake.
"I feel happy. Especially after completion, I feel so excited when looking at the ice wall with lights on in distance," said Lu, who has been carving ice for more than 20 years. "Ice building is the pride of Harbin people."
The festival also coincides with the city's first ski marathon this week reports the Xinhua news agency and the promotion of the Beijing Winter Olympics is everywhere.
However, this doesn't mean that other sports have been missed out. Part of the festival involves a swimming competition in which brave competitors must race in a pool caved into the frozen Songhua River.
With the winter games only two years away, the country has set its sights on drawing 340 million tourists to snow and ice attractions over the 2021-22 season. This would be an increase of 61% from last season, according to the South China Morning Post and a sign of appetites for winter sports in China that is snowballing.
With additional reporting from Associated Press