The winter chills have well and truly set in, and China is preparing to celebrate.
From January 5 the city of Harbin, in the country’s northern province of Heilongjiang, will come alive for the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival.
The month-long event is a Chinese institution, which was established in 1963 and, after years of interruption due to the Cultural Revolution, resurrected as an annual event in 1985. It celebrates all that’s fun about winter, from competitive speed skating and winter swimming in the Songhua River to less physical pursuits like snow and ice sculpting and ice lantern park tours.
The snow and ice sculptures are one of the festival’s major draw cards, and they impress crowds on sheer size alone. A snow sculpture may be as large as two football fields, and there are few things as awe-inspiring as walking through a castle made entirely of ice. The chilly monuments are lit up with lights and computer-controlled LEDs which cast rainbows on the ice and snow. Competition is fierce, with experienced sculptors traveling from around the world to participate.
Ice sculptures at the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival
Heilongjiang’s capital is a natural site for the festivities, as it gets the harsh, cold winds from Siberia. In winter the temperature is an average of -16.8°C, but it can be as cold as -38°C if you’re unlucky!
But don’t let the freezing Chinese winter climate dampen your enthusiasm. The Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival is one of the largest winter festivals in the world, and there’s a lot of fun to be had if you can brave the cold!
To visit the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, take a two-hour flight from Beijing to Taiping International Airport. Then catch a bus from the airport to the festival sites, which are located about an hour away.
