Harbin is known as China's "Ice Town" due to its famous, annual ice sculpture festival.

This year, the snow-themed events have been scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While Ice and Snow World and the Snow Sculpture Exhibition, two of the most famous festival sites, are open, all mass gatherings have been cancelled.

Han Zhenkun, a Harbin sculptor who participated in the festival's ice sculpture contest in 2018, says that creating ice sculptures is a magical process.

He misses the festival's hustle and bustle he felt in previous years.

This year, Han and his colleagues at the Heilongjiang Research Institute of Contemporary Art presented an exhibition of snow sculptures consisting of more than 40 snow blocks of different sizes.