The story
Jilin Rime Ice and Snow Festival in Jilin City
Jilin Rime Ice and Snow Festival organises public events around a genuine natural phenomenon: fog rising from the Songhua River, which never fully freezes through Jilin City, coats riverside willows and pines in rime ice through the coldest months. Best viewing concentrates near Rime Island by Wulajie and along the riverside dam, with the festival running from mid-December to late February.
The Songhua River through Jilin City is the only waterway in the region that never fully freezes in winter, a fact caused by warm water discharge upstream, and it's the fog rising off that open water meeting air as cold as minus 20 degrees Celsius that plates the willows, pines and elms along its banks in rime ice, a phenomenon Chinese sources rank alongside Guilin's karst scenery, the Yunnan Stone Forest and the Three Gorges as one of the country's four great natural wonders.