Jingbo Lake in the winter. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A unique location endows Heilongjiang with cool summers and stunning winter scenes forged by copious amounts of snow and ice.

Preparations for winter tourism usually kick off with the start of snowfall in December. The snow typically lasts 120 days a year.

Ice digging machines were in operation on the frozen Songhua River and trucks carrying big neatly-carved ice blocks were going past us during my visit at the end of December.

Work on the snow sculptures was underway when I visited Sun Island.

Then, I could see groups of workers standing on snow mounds roughly 20 meters high and sculpting them using shovels. The sight was breathtaking.

It's hard to imagine how they can use the unwieldy tools to carve those delicate sculptures resembling human faces, animals and European-styled churches and palaces.