As the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival (氷雪節·Bingdengje), one of China's representative winter festivals, approaches its opening, controversy has arisen over the bidding price for street vendor operation rights to sell 'Tanghulu' at the festival site for about two months, which is nearing 200 million KRW.
On the 28th, Yonhap News cited local media such as Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily and China's Xinjingbao, reporting that the bidding price for nine Tanghulu street vendor spots within this year's Harbin Ice and Snow World event started at 1 million yuan (about 192 million KRW). This year's festival is scheduled to run from mid-December to February 2025, and the Harbin city authorities auctioned off operation rights for about 30 street vendor spots selling winter goods, sleds, photos, snacks, and more within the festival site in mid-November.
According to the announcement, the bidding price for the operation rights to sell Tanghulu at nine street vendor spots for about two months reached 1 million yuan (about 192 million KRW). The successful bidders must prepare container houses of specified standards themselves and also bear an additional design cost of 500,000 yuan (about 96 million KRW) to match the festival venue's theme.
The selling price of Tanghulu cannot be arbitrarily adjusted by the vendors. There is a regulation that nine items, including strawberry, grape, and hawthorn, must be sold at prices ranging from 10 to 30 yuan (about 1,900 to 5,800 KRW) according to standards, and violations may result in warnings or fines. Additionally, there was a clause stating that if negative news appears on social networking services (SNS), the business license may be revoked.
Last year, the bidding price for Tanghulu street vendor spots was 400,000 yuan (about 77 million KRW), targeting 10 spots at that time. This year, the number of spots decreased by one, but the bidding price increased 2.5 times.
Regarding this, Chinese SNS saw conflicting opinions, with some criticizing that the festival organizers are trying to profit from operation rights, while others argued that it is worth investing sufficiently. One netizen estimated that if the Ice and Snow Festival site operates for two months, the nine Tanghulu street vendors would need to sell 3,000 Tanghulu daily, excluding labor costs, just to cover the rent.
Ultimately, it was reported that Harbin city removed the Tanghulu street vendor item from the auction platform on the 26th, one day before the auction. The Chinese Dahuan News reported that attempts to contact the Ice and Snow Festival organizers for comments on the situation received no response.
The Harbin Ice and Snow Festival is a representative winter festival in China, where the entire city transforms into an ice-themed park decorated with splendid lights and sculptures, attracting tourists from around the world. Last year, it set a record for the highest number of visitors with over 30,000 daily visitors. This year, the festival plans to expand its area from 810,000㎡ to 1,000,000㎡, making it the largest event ever, and it is expected that the number of visitors will surpass last year's scale. According to travel platform data, the number of searches for Harbin in November tripled compared to the previous month, and hotel bookings in Harbin increased by about 1.6 times compared to the same period last year, Sing Tao Daily reported.
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