Songling Snow Village: A Living Traditional Chinese Painting

TUCKED away in the depths of a mountain gorge in China’s northeastern region lies a quaint picturesque village called Songling Snow Village. Different from other villages in Northeast China that have developed ice and snow tourism, Songling Snow Village has maintained its original environment with a much less commercial flavor. For those who desire to have the authentic experience of life in Northeast China, Songling Snow Village is an ideal place.

- REN ZHAOXIA

A Hidden Natural and Cultural Paradise

Songling Snow Village, consisting of two communities, Gangdingtun and Songlingtun, is located in the Greater Hinggan Range forest area in the northwest of Linjiang City, Jilin Province.

Songling Snow Village covers an area of 11 square kilometers and is surrounded by alpine mountains situated between 900-1,100 meters above sea level. Winter months are very long with snow covering the ground five months of the year, and some areas have patches of unmelted snow all year round. In addition to traveling to the village via private vehicles, visitors can also enjoy a ride on the older, slow green colored train.

Standing on the station platform, the ground all around is covered in a thick layer of snow. The silence is suddenly broken by the tooting whistle of a train slowly emerging from a mountain tunnel. The train comes by the station once a day, so whoever wants to travel elsewhere should ensure being at the station before the train arrives. People carrying bags of varying sizes hurriedly board and disembark from the train. After a few minutes, the train whistle rings again, and off it goes on its journey, slowly disappearing in the distance. To a visitor, experiencing this is akin to being transported back to the early 20th century.