"It's not that Northern Europe can't afford to go, it's just that the Northeast is more cost-effective. ”
I never expected that this broken joke, which has been swept through the Chinese Internet this year, will add a verbal battle to this winter in Harbin in a black humorous way.
On December 18, the famous ice and snow world in Harbin was officially opened.
Thanks to the record-setting 100,000 cubic meters of natural ice stored during the ice mining construction period last year, this year's opening time is nearly half a month earlier than in previous years.
Those tourists who happened to be in the ice city caught up with an unexpected "morning meeting" and were able to check in in advance for this year's "Year of the Dragon and Asian Winter Meeting" ice and snow feast before leaving Harbin.
Harbin is a "solidified" feast. (Photo/New Weekly reporter Wang once)
This should have been a happy thing, but the rich Harbin was a little embarrassed.
In just three hours after the opening of the ice and snow world on the 18th, the number of reserved visitors has reached 40,000, so much so that in the afternoon of the same day, the park had to hurriedly issue an announcement, saying that "in order to ensure the quality of the experience, it has been decided to suspend the continued sale of tickets for the day."
Despite this, the crowds were still more than the park could handle.
Many netizens who entered the park on the same day complained that popular free projects such as Ferris wheels, ice slides, and ice and snow shows had to wait in long queues because of too many reservations.
On the opening day of the Ice and Snow World, most of the projects were lined up due to the large number of people. (Photo/New Weekly reporter Wang once)
You must know that the temperature in Harbin has been hovering around minus 20 degrees Celsius for nearly a week.
Those who shivered in the biting cold wind finally lost patience after waiting, and soon someone shouted "refund", and the sporadic complaints were like sparks, and finally evolved into a ridiculous drama of collectively asking for a refund.
Ice and Snow World really apologized.
On the afternoon of the 19th, the official public account of the park released an article "A Letter to the Majority of Tourists", expressing reflection on the poor service and proposing some specific measures for rectification overnight.
This little turmoil has developed here, and it is time to turn the page.
But after the ticket was refunded, those "white prostitution strategies" on social media aimed at the ice and snow world ignited another topic of rhetoric:
Is the bottom line of the "white prostitution party" who unloads the mill and kills the donkey too low?
Think about it, if you take a walk outdoors in Harbin at minus 20 degrees Celsius, will you feel that you have courage?
Not to mention queuing for an hour or two in such weather, just to spin the Ferris wheel or experience a slide that takes less than a minute.
However, the fact is that on the first day of opening on the 18th, not only does the Ice and Snow World require reservations for admission, but also the five popular attractions of Super Ice Slide, Harbin Ice Show, Snow Ferris Wheel, Ski Experience Area and Ice and Snow Car Ballet Show also need to be booked online in advance, such as the Ferris wheel can only be reserved for 210 people every half an hour, and the ski experience area is 400 people.
Snowflake Ferris wheel. (Photo/New Weekly reporter Wang once)
Anyone who has traveled to Harbin knows that the positioning of Ice and Snow World is "Ice and Snow Art Boutique Project", rather than a traditional theme park.
There are thousands of ice and snow landscapes created by ice carvers overnight in the park, and the number of outdoor entertainment projects is not much.
The beautiful ice sculptures are the "core products" of the ice and snow world. (Photo/New Weekly reporter Wang once)
Even though Ice and Snow World is known for being "big", 40,000 people squeezed into the park at the same time during the 10 hours of limited opening means that there may be thousands of people waiting in line at the same time for every outdoor attraction at every time of day.
Even if you make an early reservation, tourists can only wait in line when they arrive at the scene. The long wait eventually crushed the patience of the tourists, who were already blown away in the cold wind.
As a veteran professional park, Ice and Snow World could have done better.
For example, some Douyin netizens pointed out that the ticket price did not match the actual experience, because some venues had not been repaired on the first day of opening, and there were not enough staff to maintain order.
The most important thing in the "refund incident" of Ice and Snow World is the reservation problem, and the operation of the scenic spot lacks a mature implementation plan. (New Weekly reporter Wang Yiyi)
Although it is only open for about one quarter a year, since it was completed in 1999, this year has come to the 25th edition, and since the Ice and Snow World has the confidence to open the park in advance, it should also have the ability to do a good job of predicting the extreme value and come up with a mature operation plan when there is too much traffic.
What's more, Harbin's tourism boom this year was expected, and the Harbin Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism and major scenic spots have already made full preparations for the tourist season.
Ice and Snow World, founded in 1999, shows the ice and snow culture and the charm of ice and snow tourism in Harbin. (Photo/New Weekly reporter Wang once)
According to the "2024 New Year's Day New Year's Eve Travel Insights" released by Ctrip, Harbin is once again on the list of "popular domestic tourist destinations during the New Year's Day holiday" this year, and the number of New Year's Day holiday orders destined for Harbin increased by 631% year-on-year. Harbin Airport has also added 11 new domestic routes to this end.
The 40,000 people who entered the park on the first day of the opening of the Ice and Snow World were all from online reservations, not individual visitors who temporarily bought tickets on the spot.
According to an interview with Red Star News on the 20th, the daily flow of people in the Ice and Snow World has been limited to 20,000, and the number on the first day has been cut in half.
So, is this the actual extreme value of the park's tolerable flow of people, or is it a temporary conservative restriction after scientific research?
On the opening day of the park on the 18th, some of the landscape and facilities in the park have not even been built. (Photo/New Weekly reporter Wang once)
One thing to say, in the face of the anger of tourists, Harbin and Ice and Snow World reacted quite sincerely, and quickly responded the day after the "ticket refund incident".
The staff of the Harbin Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism told the media that the leaders of the Bureau of Culture and Tourism rushed to the site of the Ice and Snow World to supervise as soon as possible, and confirmed that some tourists on the first day of the park were refunded, and there were no safety problems at the scene.
On the same day, Ice and Snow World released a letter to the majority of tourists on the official account.
The article said that the needs of some tourists were not fully met, "and we apologize for this." We have carried out a deep reflection on the poor service and rectified it overnight", and its rectification measures mainly include optimizing the queue information reminder, expanding the reception service team and adding complaint acceptance channels.
The response of the Ice World. (Photo/Ice and Snow World Official Account)
Whether it is a public anger or a shame, the Ice and Snow World finally refunded the full amount of the 328 yuan ticket to some tourists.
Originally, when the matter came to this point, it was probably time to come to an end. The rectification should be rectified, and the fun should be enjoyed, and after this episode, the lively winter in Harbin has just begun.
However, netizens "tore" even more.
This was originally a refund incident caused by a "poor travel experience", and it seems that there is a certain rationality in refunding some tourists.
But soon, this "white prostitution experience" turned out to be the talk of some refunded tourists to show off, and some people bluntly said that they took photos, watched ice sculptures, played on slides and posted on Moments, and played until 12 o'clock in the evening, and the result was a full refund.
Since then, a number of "white prostitution strategies" have even emerged on social media for the ice and snow world, without putting the mammary glands of netizens in their eyes.
The diversity of human species is vividly demonstrated in the matter of "ticket refund". (Photo/Social Platform)
No one can see that behind the smug appearance between the lines, there is a bit of bad experience, but this wave of traffic passwords is really not good.
You must know that every Harbin Ice and Snow World needs ice pickers to go to the Songhua River to pick ice, make ice cubes, and then carefully carve by ice carvers to have thousands of beautiful ice and snow landscapes in the park.
The thickness of the ice on the surface of the Songhua River in December every year can reach more than half a meter, and the vast Songhua River provides a large amount of ice for the construction of the ice and snow world. (Photo/New Weekly reporter Wang once)
The tickets to the Ice and Snow World are meant to pay for the works of art that the ice carvers worked on overnight, and most of the outdoor entertainment projects are free items with gifts, and there is no way to say that "nothing was played" because you can't get in line.
There are anchors who play from morning to night, and they have also joined the ranks of ticket refunds. (Photo/Network)
In the eyes of many opponents, the scenic spot should have been tougher and rectified, but it should not be said that the ticket should be refunded, so that these "malicious refunds" people have taken advantage of the loopholes.
What's more, in the popular theme parks in China, queuing is commonplace, and when queuing at Disney and Universal Studios, there has never been a "white prostitution party" who wants to refund tickets.
Is the reason why "tourists slaughter scenic spots" is rare because they have to watch people put dishes?
Regarding the sudden commotion of this kind of tourists, some netizens bluntly said: "After the ticket money is refunded, do you have to rush home early? After all, the down jacket cannot be refunded after 7 days." ”
Don't say it, there are really consumers in the "atmosphere".
The angry ridicule of netizens has even become a reality. (Photo/Bailu Video)
Some time ago, Ma Boyong's refusal to sign pirated books caused an even bigger war of words.
Before that, those who took advantage of the loophole of "seven days no reason to return" to make some behaviors such as "return and refund clothes after taking photos during the trip" have also repeatedly been on the hot search.
If you go back further, the piracy business that was bred by unwillingness to pay and stealing loopholes has spread from games and novels to film and television dramas and short videos, weaving a web of distorted values.
What's even more terrifying is that the younger generation, as Internet natives, has established their consumption concepts from childhood to adulthood in such an environment of "food to open their mouths", and they will inevitably take "clothes to reach out" for granted.
Whether they are the same people or not, they will eventually become the same people. (Photo/Weibo)
To reverse the long-term consumption Xi of netizens in the short term may not be an easy thing to achieve.
But we can start from the basics, such as not being a "refund-only" online buyer, such as not going to "backstab" a sincere business scenic spot, and don't take Lao Tie's politeness for granted.
After all, regardless of whether there is a "malicious refund", Ice and Snow World did not participate in the online verbal war and did not care about the losses caused by the refund.
From the leaders of the Harbin Bureau of Culture and Tourism who rushed to the scene for the first time to supervise, to the rectification measures that were quickly finalized after the park apologized, Harbin gave a sincerity like the warm sun in winter.
The most basic ideological and moral education we have received has repeatedly emphasized the immorality of "eating overlord meals", and no matter how you look at it, "white prostitution" is not a thing worth showing off.
Even if you don't talk about morality, as a lucky person who was refunded, it was not cheap enough, and he was "stupid", trying to smash the pot of the attraction with the "white prostitution strategy" -
I can only say that what awaits me next year will not be the next pleasant "white prostitution trip", but more likely a stricter ticket verification system in the desperation of merchants, and higher fares that allow merchants to cover the cost of being cheated.
Don't rejoice too soon until you know "who the wool comes from".