The annual international festival of ice and snow was opened in the capital of the Chinese province of Heilongjiang. This is already 34 festival. The first time the festival was held in 1963, then in the years of the Cultural Revolution it was not until the festivals. Since 1985, festivals have been held regularly.

Harbin was not chosen by chance: in the northeast of China, under the influence of cold Siberian winds, the average temperature in summer is only +21.2 ° C, and in winter - 16.8 ° C. Sometimes at night the temperature drops to -38 degrees. The festival is usually opened on January 5, but it happens, it happens before. The festival lasts a month, but under favorable weather it can drag on. The Harbin festival is one of the world's largest winter events, along with the winter carnival in Canadian Quebec, a ski festival in Norway, a snow festival in Japan's Sapporo.

Thousands of ice cubes are taken from the Sungari River, the tributary of the Amur River. Of the snow, figures are sometimes simply grandiose up to 250 meters in length and up to 8.5 meters in height. Such a miracle may require 13,000 cubic meters of snow. In the manufacture of figures, both modern laser instruments and traditional chisels and ice axes are used. Here you can see the figures of animals, and copies of famous architectural structures, and compositions dedicated to significant historical events. To illuminate the figures, multi-colored LED lights are used, so it is especially interesting that all buildings look at night.

In addition to ice and snow sculptures, labyrinths and slides at the festival, you can go skiing, swim in the ice hole in the river Sungari.

The festival takes place during the three most important holidays of China - New Year, Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival. The site for the festival was the four park areas of Harbin. This year 180 thousand cubic meters of ice went to create sculptures. Preparation began in early December. Ten thousand sculptors drew ice figures day and night. For the figures, blocks of ice weighing up to 250 kg. Describing sculptures is useless, it needs to be seen.