Held in Heilongjiang Province, China, the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival is ranked among the largest ice and snow festivals in the world with many fun activities as well as spectacular installations.
The festival runs from January 5 to February 5 every year. Some attractions even open to visitors before the opening ceremony, the most popular being the amusement park called “Harbin Ice and Snow World”. It is built with ice blocks hauled from the nearby Songhua River. This year, “Harbin Ice and Snow World” covers 600,000 square meters and includes more than 100 sculptured sites. The amusement park is made up of 110,000 cubic meters of ice and 120,000 cubic meters of snow.
Visitors can walk through giant illuminated ice castles, admire the exquisite ice Buddha statue made from 4,500 cubic meters of snow, watch 3D light shows and challenge themselves on the 340-meter-long "Northern Lights"-themed ice slide. In addition, visitors can also "witness" the works of the annual Harbin Ice Sculpture Competition by sculptors from 12 different countries.
Tickets to the “Harbin Ice and Snow World” currently cost 330 yuan, or about $48. There are also many free activities around town that visitors can enjoy until the end of February, such as 2,019 snowmen of different shapes and sizes built along the river.
