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The famous Ice Festival of Harbin takes place every year from January to February. Giant, impressive and artistic sculptures everywhere will bring you to a magical world of snow and ice that you may never forget. Harbin, the sweet Capital of the north, will also enchant you with its Russian streets and facades “a la Saint Petersburg”.
The annual Harbin ice festival has been running since 1963 but has been disordered due to revolutionary alliances, eventually, the festival resumed in 1985. Harbin is the Capital of Heilongjiang a Province in China which is located in the Northern region right under the cold winds of Siberia. Harbin is the main source of ice and snow culture in the world. The average temperature in this area is between -31°C to -15°C, although the record low temperature the region has experienced was -52.3°C. The festival officially starts by the 5th of January and lasts for a month. But the longevity of the festival also depends upon the weather; if the weather permits the festival usually opens earlier and lasts much longer than a month. The highlight of the festival is the ice lanterns and the sculpture exhibitions. Thousand of exhibits can be viewed in this festival all made up of ice or snow which transforms the city into a gleaming place of whiteness and crystallized sceneries. The ice and snow shows can range from small items to human size buildings and to towering pagodas. You can also see some of the world’s greatest industrial icons being replicated in the Harbin Ice Festival like the Eiffel Tower and also the Great Wall of China. The opening event of the ice festival few years ago featured a group of traditional women who performed a traditional folk dance behind a ten meter high rooster made out of ice. One of the fun activities on the Harbin Ice Festival is the wall climbing, sounds familiar? Climbing high sculptures and wall made out of ice is an interesting activity, that many tourists enjoy. Ice lantern touring activities are also common during the harbin ice festival. This includes tours to Harbin’s Zhaolin Park where there is usually an ice lantern exhibition, and winter swimming in Songhua River. The best time to see the show is by night for some of the gigantic sculptures are embedded with different colored lights giving more highlights to the beauty of the sculptures. Most of the ice used from this festival comes from Songhua Jiang – a nearby river which offers a limitless supply. But one needs a chainsaw to gather chunks of ice because ice in here can be as thick as 1 meter.
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