The worst way to spend winter is in an unheated room where the window blocks the warmth of the sun but not the humidity or, for that matter, in a heated room that seals you in as a cocoon and shields you from the cold and drabness outside. 

The best way, in my humble opinion, is to fight the season by an excursion to a tropical island or to counter cold with even more cold by going to the northernmost provincial capital city in China. There, the shorter daylight time and lower temperatures (relatively speaking) have not dampened the fun but rather provide an excuse for creating a winter wonderland. 

Harbin turns into an icy princess as the temperature dips below freezing. Despite her wintry facade, she is fiery with passion inside, as if she had just been to the carnival in Rio and had to hide her temperament with an outfit of demureness. 

As a matter of fact, every gala performance I have seen in Harbin features at least one Latin number with scantily clad dancers strutting their stuff. As if to illustrate my point, the pageantry for the opening ceremony of the 28th China Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival was called "Passion in Harbin". 

Of course, you do not have to catch this show to get what's burning inside the huge blocks of ice and snow. But you'd have to physically be in Heilongjiang. Here is a recommended schedule for a two-day tour, as taken by yours truly in January. 

Saturday afternoon 

Fly to Harbin on an early morning flight. Try the local cuisine in any restaurant that offers bak choy and meatball soup. 

First thing in the afternoon: Call a taxi to Sun Island, which is actually a peninsula in the Songhua River. 

The day I was there, there was a group wedding with 18 couples. The brides all wore gorgeous white gowns, but during much of the ceremony only the floor-length hemlines crept out of the heavy coat. The brave ones took them off for the photo shoot, though. 

You'll see a giant Russian girl dressed in a swan suit. I mean a snow statue in the center of the square. This is the place for the annual snow sculpture exhibition, which is in its 24th year, and Russia is bursting all over. Apart from the ballerina, there is poet Gorky with his seagull and Pushkin with his melancholy. 

To the other side of the square is a section with rows of regular-sized snow sculptures. An ongoing competition is divided into three parts: provincial, national and international levels. 

I talked to some of the sculptors, who turned out to be art students. They work in groups of three and spend on average three days on a slab of snow. 

Art is supposed to be eternal, but those sculpted in ice and snow last roughly two months. On a positive note, their work may be photographed more often than a sculpture of similar stature in a gallery. 

Definitely not to be missed are the 99 snowmen, all donning red hats but otherwise wearing disparate expressions. 

Saturday evening 

Sun Island Park is pretty big and offers food, hot drinks and even accommodation. But you should hop to the other side of the peninsula before darkness engulfs it. 

The Ice and Snow World is more like a theme park than an exhibition. It is said to be the world's largest. 

It is a fairyland where every structure is lit from within. But you should arrive before the lights are turned on. An ice city in natural daylight exudes a resemblance to a glass shop. The magic is cast when lights turn it into a translucent world where rough replicas of the world's architecture put on a sheen that comes from within. There is St. Basil's, the dome, which emits a strong light. There is London's Tower Bridge, with two emerald towers. 

Chinese architecture is represented by bridges with moon-shaped openings and clusters of towers that seem to be transported from a Buddhist compound. 

All the joyrides and slides are included in one ticket price, together with three shows. You have to plan well to take in as much as you can with one visit. If you simply pose in front of every set of structures, you're not even getting half your money's worth. Touch the ice. Knock on it to see how hard it is. Find out how you can take a photo without getting a commercial sponsor's name into the frame. 

Wind down the evening with a trip to Central Street, Harbin's landmark pedestrian avenue, which is lined with handsome European buildings from the early 20th century. I'm sure you'll be distracted by more ice sculptures in the middle of the cobblestone street. 

Standing out is a colossal snow statue of Marilyn Monroe, as if she were standing over a gusty subway grate. Sure, her skirt does not flutter and her legs were replaced with a more solid pedestal. But her upper body is carved in a lascivious likeness. 

Buy a popsicle, and see if your breath is still visible in the winter air. You've got to test how far you can stretch yourself in terms of endurance. The excitement will follow naturally. 

Sunday 

It is time to sharpen your skiing skills. There are several ski resorts in the Harbin vicinity, mostly the southeastern suburb. I picked Jihua, partly because it is only an hour's drive from downtown. 

I've never skied before, so you can imagine how much time it took me to put on the boots and skies. As soon as all was ready, I started to slide down a very gradual slope. 

It took me a while to get to the cable ride, which pulled me up the gentlest of four slopes. Halfway up, I realized I had to let go of the lift so that I would not face the full downhill. But the second I was on my own, I glided backwards again, until I hit the next person up and knocked him off his lift. 

Well, I'll spare you the agony of reading about a novice's skiing adventure. Suffice it to say, I achieved the feat of skiing backwards without learning the trick. 

If you plan to stay the night, you've got to taste the city's gourmet fare and try some bar hopping. Don't forget ice beer. Also, local jiaozi come with a variety of fillings and are a must-try. 

If you're a Russophile, food and souvenirs from the country are plentiful and more competitively priced than similar items in Russia. I grabbed more Russia-themed gift items here than on my previous trip to Moscow six months earlier. I'll just pretend I made another trip north of the border. 

If you have to leave Sunday evening, make sure to drive around town. Bask in the glow of street adornments and ice statues. Downtown Harbin comes alive when it is "blanketed with the curtain of darkness" - to quote the title of a popular radio drama. 

As I was leaving town, I caught a glimpse of the ice colonnade encircling a welcome island in the road, which would be the first mammoth ice formation a night arrival would see after exiting the airport. What a sight! 

When it is frozen, Harbin sparkles more brightly than ever.