Sweet-toothed holidaymakers joined a festive game, bagging dozens of tanghulu from 5-metre-high trees.

Tourists participated in the 20th Yakeshi Phoenix Mountain Snow Season event in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, on December 7.

The scenic snowy area featured a 'giant' sugar gourd tree standing 10 m (33 ft) tall, along with ten 16ft (5m) sugar gourd trees adorned with 30,000 strings of candied fruit, creating a delightful sugar gourd forest.

Footage shows participants using long rods to knock the treats off the trees, making them fall to the ground, while others gathered the candies from the snowy pavement.

The annual event also allows visitors to make their own sugar gourds, offering them a chance to create unique souvenirs.

Local media reported that the sugar gourd processing workshop in the area operates day and night, producing 3,000 strings of the traditional treat daily to meet the growing demand from winter tourists.

Local candy makers originally used hawthorn berries, but now they also use other fruits such as strawberries, cranberries, grapes, mandarin oranges, pineapple segments, cherries, kiwis, and dragon fruit.

These sweet treats are crunchy and sugary on the outside, yet soft and tart on the inside.

Local reports said that the rounded shapes of Tanghulu resemble calabash gourds, symbols of good luck in ancient China, and they often appear around the New Year and Lunar New Year celebrations.