ICE SCULPTURES WOW VISITORS

world’s largest ice fest begins in china’s harbin

The world’s largest ice festival began this week in Harbin, a city in the northeast of China. The festival has drawn millions of visitors from around the world every year since its inception in the early 1980s.

Highlights include sled rides on the Songhua river, mass weddings, and towering sculptures of ice and snow carved by thousands of artists and workers.

It took around 10,000 workers to make this year’s ice world and it’s spread over an area of 600,000 square metres — that’s nearly as big as Disneyland.

Last year more than one million people attended the festival, however some people think that 100,000 people a day could visit this year.

At night thousands of computer-controlled LEDs light-up the huge ice sculptures

Visitors marvel at the mini ice replicas of the Colosseum and of the Milan Cathedral, particularly in the long evenings when soft, coloured lights illuminate the sculptures.

The festival also attracts hordes of domestic tourists.

“The ice castles and sculptures made by workers are very impressive,” said Lin Renlong, who was visiting with his girlfriend.

“It’s like Disneyland, Disneyland in winter,” said the 22-year-old from the northern province of Hebei. —

Visitors play slide as others tour colourful building structures made from blocks of ice at the Harbin International Ice and Snow festival held in Harbin in northeastern’s China’s Heilongjiang province. —

<< Visitors walk around ice sculptures illuminated by coloured lights. —

Newly-wed couples beam in front of the sculptures

Couples walk past an ice sculpture before a group wedding.

Children too join the fun in the coldest city of China. —