Relax - International Harbin Ice and Snow Festival as different as day and night

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It is the meeting place for the world's best ice sculptors and it attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world.

The International Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, which began on Thursday, gives icy winds and unbearable winter a totally different meaning.

The remarkable sculptures on display at the festival give tourists there a variety of reasons to smile.

Local and foreign ice sculptors have exhibited their best creations. Some of the displays are illuminated with colourful lights from the inside, making for great spectacle, the International Business Times reported.

Visitors can walk in between the impressive works or use the carriage rides.

Besides walking around and marvelling at the colourful creations, visitors can also zip down snowy slides or climb up the staircases of ice castles and find out what's inside, Daily Mail reported.

Photos:
Ice-chitecture in Harbin

Spread out across three zones, the theme park features a range of snow-based rides, ice mountains and reproductions of some of the most iconic buildings in the world - all intricately carved from giant blocks of ice and snow.

The 119 million yuan (S$24 million) spectacle is spread over 60ha.

Apart from the display of ice sculpture, 30 other events are being organised, including a reindeer parade, a group wedding and a free-access ice fairyland, reported Xinhua.

In winters, temperature at Harbin can drop to as low as minus 30 deg C - ideal conditions for such an event.

The first snow show was organised in Harbin's Zhaolin Park in 1963. The festival was discontinued during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and resumed in 1985.

Tourists on a dog sled in front of a snow sculpture in Harbin.

Global attraction

At first, its clientele was mainly Chinese, but in the last few years, it has become an international festival and competition that attracts people from all over the world.

The growth of the festival has been in tandem with the continued growth of China's economy, which in turn has contributed to the magnitude of the snow sculptures and ice architecture.

The show is now in the league of other major ice and snow festivals like the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan, the Winter Carnival in Quebec City, Canada, and the Ski Festival in Norway.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

Photos: Reuters

International Harbin Ice and Snow Festival as different as day and night

The New Paper | Sun, Jan 8 2012

Besides marvelling at colourful ice sculptures, visitors can also zip down snowy slides or climb up the staircases of ice castles.

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