China's Cold Treats

Ice pops have been the rage in China, especially this year!

Tourists flocked to social media to post pictures of ice cream bars in the shape of two millennia-old bronze masks unearthed from the legendary Sanxingdui Ruins on Saturday, the first day of the May Day holidays. 

The ice cream, rolled out by the Sanxingdui Museum which is 38 km north from Chengdu in Sichuan Province, boasts two flavors – “excavation” and “bronze” – which are chocolate and matcha respectively.

Other tourist destinations in China soon joined the social media craze with their own offerings, from Wuhan's Yellow Crane Tower to the Catholic church in Qingdao and the Yanghu Water Street in Changsha, luring tourists to take pictures of the ice pops in front of these iconic cultural sites. 

“I would visit these scenic sites just for these ice cream bars”, a netizen remarked on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, under a flurry of photos of these ice pops. 

Yueyang Tower, a tourist magnet perched along the Dongting Lake in Hunan Province, said it sold more than 22,000 ice pops, priced at 18 yuan ($2.8), in the shape of the ancient building during the five-day holiday.