The Harbin Festival is one of the largest ice festivals in the world, along with Sapporo Snow Festival and Quebec Winter Carnival. The festival covers 400,000 sq. m and uses 120,000 m³ of ice and snow on Sun Island on the Songhua River in Harbin. It is held annually from January 5 and lasts for over one month. During this period the temperature can drop down to as low as -30°C. One of most popular winter destinations in China, Harbin attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world brave the sub-zero temperatures to admire the ice sculptures.

The inspiration for the ice and snow sculptures there usually is derived from traditional Chinese fairy tales or world famous architectures such as the Great Wall, Canada’s Niagara Falls, the Egyptian Pyramids, etc. Some of the structures are created by piling ice blocks up to make huge models of buildings. Lights are frozen in the middle of the blocks.

In 2007 the event included a Guinness World Record for the largest snow sculpture which stood at 250 m long, 9 meters high, and which was built with over 13 000 m³ of snow. The 26th Harbin Ice and Snow Festival began on January 5, 2010 and if you are in China during this period, it really should not be missed.

For more photos – click here