China - January 29, 2025 Winter tourist influx drives sales of souvenirs, cultural products in China's Harbin (Voice_over) As Harbin City, in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, becomes a popular ice and snow tourism destination, souvenirs and cultural products are seeing a boom in sales this winter. Ice cream to match the icy weather is a favorite amongst visitors with one brand infusing traditional Chinese medicine flavors like ginseng into the icy treats. Also popular, decorations for your ice box- fridge magnets featuring augmented reality landscapes that jump to life when when scanned with your smart phone. The company behind them has made about 2.7 million U.S. dollars in the past year. And when those freezing temperatures test your resilience, a special jacket designed by engineers at the Harbin Institute of Technology. (Sound_bite) Zhou Yang, Doctoral student, School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology: "This intelligent, temperature-controlled down jacket is powered by a portable power bank. As you can see, it features a switch that allows us to adjust the heating to 55, 50, 45, or 40 degrees Celsius." (Voice_over) During the 2023-2024 winter tourism season, Harbin hosted more than 87 million visitors, marking a massive 300-percent increase from the previous season, with sales revenues topping 17 billion U.S. dollars, a 500-percent year-on-year increase. [Restriction: No access Chinese mainland]