Our expectations were far exceeded after seeing the Ice & Snow Festival in Harbin, China! Located about 350 miles south of Russia, about 450 miles east of Mongolia and maybe 375 miles north of North Korea, sits one of China's largest cities (top 10), Harbin! As you will see in the pictures below, Haerbin is known for it's beautiful snow and ice sculptures during the winter months. The festival begins in early January and will last as long as the weather allows - sometimes to March!
After some research, I learned that nearly 10,000 workers were employeed to build the ice and snow sculptures, which required about 590,000 square feet of ice and 492,000 square feet of snow! How in the world did they do it?! Swing saws were used to carve ice into blocks, taken from the frozen surface of the Songhua River. Chisels, ice picks and various types of saws were then used by ice sculptors to carve out large scaled ice sculptures (see pictures below). These artists worked day and night to complete their masterpieces! Deionised water can also be used, producing ice blocks as transparent as glass to make clear sculptures rather than translucent ones. Multicolored lights were also used to give color to the ice, creating a spectacular vision when lit up, especially at night!
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| Replica of the Hallgrimskirkja Church in Reykjavik, Iceland) |
According to organizers, the structure pictured above is the tallest ice sculpture in China (46 meters / 151 ft) and was made with 12,000 meters (over 39,000 ft) of ice!
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| Roman Colosseum |
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| Nearing -30 degrees Celsuis |
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| Snow Fox |
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