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A city of illuminated ice buildings on the frozen Songhua River — December 2026 to roughly February 2027, opening date not yet announced (and last season it closed early).
Two things about this event are consistently mistimed by foreign visitors.
The opening is announced very late. The 27th edition opened on 17 December 2025 and the date was confirmed publicly only two days ahead; the 26th opened on 21 December 2024. A limited presale ran 10–22 October last season for late-December entry, with general presale opening in mid-December. If you are building a trip around the park, book flexible accommodation and watch the operator's channels from early October.
The closing is a weather event, not a schedule. The 27th edition shut on 21 February 2026, earlier than planned, after unusually warm weather. Before that the operator had already closed on 20–21 February and reopened on the 22nd for a single evening at reduced prices. Late February is the risky window — if you want certainty, come in January. Worth knowing if you were caught by it: holders of tickets dated 20–28 February 2026 can refund and then enter the 28th edition free on the same ID.
The indoor Dream Ice and Snow Hall (梦幻冰雪馆) inside the park — billed as the world's largest indoor ice attraction — is the weather-proof fallback, and it stayed open when the outdoor park shut.
This is one of the few large Chinese attractions with published official guidance for foreign tourists, and it is genuinely accommodating:
27th-edition prices, for budgeting only — the 28th's are unannounced: standard adult ¥328 (held flat from the previous season), ¥298 during the opening week, concessions for children 1.2 m to 18 and full-time students under 24, free entry for over-65s with advance reservation (2,000 slots a day). Opening hours ran 10:00–21:30 — this is a night attraction; the ice architecture is lit from within and the park is a different place after dark.
The park is the centrepiece of the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, a city-wide event founded in 1985 and usually grouped with Sapporo, Quebec and Oslo as one of the world's four great winter festivals. Its 42nd edition opened on 5 January 2026 with more than 200 cultural, sporting and trade events across the city, and for the first time named a guest country — Belgium. The early-January opening has been consistent, but the 2027 edition is not announced.
Metro Line 2 to Ice and Snow World station is the reliable winter option and avoids the road congestion; from the station it is a 500–600 m walk across the plaza. Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB) is about 40 km away, roughly 45–50 minutes by car. These transport details come from travel guides rather than official transit sources — treat fares and hours as approximate.
Status: Exact dates for this edition have not been announced by the organisers yet — we publish the month only, and update this page when the dates are confirmed. Opening dates are confirmed very late: the 27th edition opened 17 December 2025 and was announced only two days beforehand; the 26th opened 21 December 2024. A limited presale ran in mid-October last season. Nothing about the 28th edition is announced yet — not the opening date, not prices. Everything below is last season's edition, labelled as such, plus the official foreign-visitor ticketing guidance, which has been stable. Source: the operator's official site hrbicesnow.com (which carried no 28th-edition announcement when we checked), Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism guidance including its official guide for foreign visitors, and Xinhua and China News Service reporting on the 27th edition's opening and early closure · checked 2026-08-22