The annual festival in the capital of the northeastern province of Heilongjiang is expected to draw more than one million visitors to admire castles and cathedrals sculpted out of ice and lit up at night in ethereal colours.

This year’s display is the largest in the festival’s decades-long history, filling a park the size of more than 100 sports fields and using a record amount of ice and snow, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Visitors sledded and snapped selfies on the eve of the park’s opening ceremony, the translucent pagodas around them glowing in surreally neon pinks, blues and greens.

Chinese and Dutch designers worked with more than 10,000 workers over three months to build the winter wonderland, according to Xinhua.

The centrepiece is a 15-story tower of ice, thought to be the world’s tallest.