China surprises us with some great artistic and creative work. When in China, you can’t miss the decade-old ice and snow sculpture festival. It came into inception in 1985. It was then that the festival evolved from a local ice lantern display. It has turned into a world-class winter celebration.
Various experts and artisans built the Harbin ice world. The Songhua River freezes to chilled blocks of ice in winter. A decade-old traditional ice harvesting ceremony is held annually. Thousands of workers cut and gather huge massive block so ice for the fest. The river is quite accessible and provides lots of ice blocks to work upon. The artist carves them into great pieces of sculpture and buildings.
How fascinating can it get to see massive ice blocks turned into giant animals, sculptures, castles, and world landmarks? Dragons, tigers, lions, pandas, complex mazes, ice slides, mythological and cultural, and yes, an entire city is created with colorful LED lights at night that can make you awestruck. The view is so breathtaking that one can definitely not miss a single nook and corner to explore here. The snow and ice illuminate the carvings beautifully. Its another magical world of its own with vibrant colors on white nights.
Wow! You can also slide down a large ice slides which is quite a hundred meters long. From snow tube runs to snow trains, it sounds like so much fun to explore it. The Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur, which are an iconic pair of 88-story twin skyscrapers, are also the World’s tallest building are well crafted with snow at the fest. The fest also has the world’s largest Buddhist temple, known as the Borobudur. This ice sculpture replicates 9th century marvel with 72 stupas, 9 stacked platforms, Buddha statues, and Mandalas. This vast area has hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of ice and snow. Its a temporary Ice and Snow world created.
How fascinating can it get to see massive ice blocks turned into giant animals, sculptures, castles, and world landmarks? Dragons, tigers, lions, pandas, complex mazes, ice slides, mythological and cultural, and yes, an entire city is created with colorful LED lights at night that can make you awestruck. The view is so breathtaking that one can definitely not miss a single nook and corner to explore here. The snow and ice illuminate the carvings beautifully. Its another magical world of its own with vibrant colors on white nights.
Wow! You can also slide down a large ice slides which is quite a hundred meters long. From snow tube runs to snow trains, it sounds like so much fun to explore it. The Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur, which are an iconic pair of 88-story twin skyscrapers, are also the World’s tallest building are well crafted with snow at the fest. The fest also has the world’s largest Buddhist temple, known as the Borobudur. This ice sculpture replicates 9th century marvel with 72 stupas, 9 stacked platforms, Buddha statues, and Mandalas. This vast area has hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of ice and snow. Its a temporary Ice and Snow world created.
These Ice blocks are not an easy task and need some highly skilled craftsmen and teams in place. Several artists come together to carve these ice blocks.. Muuji Muuji is a famous Mongolian ice sculpture artist. Check out this great piece of work on this link Junichi Nakamura is another ice sculptor.
How to reach the Harbin Ice and Snow festival
Take a flight from Delhi or Mumbai to Beijing or Shanghai. Then you will have to head to Harbin Taiping International Airport (HRB). You will have to then take Metro Line 2 to reach the festival. You may have to check which trains and taxis head to the Songbei district. You may have to get China Visa for booking your flights and hotels. The festival runs from December to February.
