In Harbin, though, the arrival of winter signals the beginning of the peak tourist season.
Tian's optimism was shared at the first International Skiing Industry Cooperation Forum, held in Harbin, a skiing hub, in December.
China's best ski slopes are at the nearby Yabuli Ski Resort, while in Harbin itself the Songhua River provides space for ice skaters and ice hockey games.
But officials in Harbin have been defensive about their decision, even after they discovered the approaching threat, to keep the spill secret from residents until the last minute.
Elsewhere, Senegal and China played out a goalless draw in an international friendly in Harbin while Junichi Inamoto's late strike helped Japan come from behind to claim a 4-3 victory over Ghana in an entertaining friendly in Utrecht.
In short, daily life in a hardscrabble farming village in Szechuan province is a world away from the Shanghai Nanjing Road ritzy shopping street or even an old, walled neighborhood in Harbin, a crossroad of many cultures in northeastern China.
In Harbin, a city in the north-east, one representative who opposed price increases became something of a media celebrity last month, after he threw down a bottle of mineral water in disgust at not being given the time, he alleged, to express his views at a hearing.
His grandparents had money but lost everything when they fled the Russian revolution in 1917 and moved to Harbin in northern China.
Launched in 1963, Harbin's festival is now ranked as one of the four largest ice and snow carnivals in the world and attracts close on a million visitors.
Stunning, intricate creations by world-class carvers include those from the ice city of Harbin, in China.
He spent most of his time Harbin City in Heilongjiang province before he eventually became mayor of Chengdu City in Sichuan in 2001.
Over the next six years, she traveled half the country, selling her wares as far as to Harbin and Yichun in northeastern Heilongjiang Province.
It also assembles ERJ-145s in an Embraer joint venture, with the Harbin production lines reportedly switching to final assembly of Embraer Legacy business jets in several months.
FORBES: Name You Need to Know: Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC)
In eight of the 70 cities, including major cities Chongqing and Harbin, prices of newly built homes were up in March from the previous month.
Today in Heilongjiang, the capital, Harbin, hosts the annual Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, where the delicately-crafted ice lanterns are a major highlight.
By the 20th century, the community in Kaifeng was eclipsed by cities like Harbin, Ningbo and Tianjin, which all had sizable Jewish settlements.
Harbin, a provincial city in northeastern China, has a larger population.
Macau also received a Harbin clone, and the annual festival in Bruges has enlisted the help of Chinese artists.
Construction of the 2, 500 megawatt Merone facility scheduled for completion in 2008 has been funded by China's Harbin Power and several Arab interests.
Anheuser said this week that if it won, it would not combine Harbin with Tsingtao, China's largest brewer, in which it has a 9.9% stake.
As the slick moved along the Songhua river towards Harbin, it passed through Songyuan, a big city in Jilin, without a word of warning being issued to the public (though water supplies were suspended).
SAB's relationship with Harbin has soured since the London-headquartered brewer bought a 29% stake in the Chinese group last year.
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