Across China: Ice-cutting festival heralds promising northeast China winter tourism

HARBIN, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- In the presence of a biting wind, fur-clad workers wielded steel chisels in tackling the frozen surface of the Songhua River, producing a large crystalline chunk of ice to the cheers of spectators in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

The ice chunk, dubbed the "first ice" of this year, was harvested amid the rhythmic chants of workers, signaling the start of Ha