The coolest festival in the world

China’s Harbin Ice Festival promises towering snow sculptures featuring mythic figures, a temporary city of famous buildings rendered in ice (which have included the tallest ice sculpture in China, at 46 metres) as well as intricate ice-art lit with multi-coloured LED lights, that wow around a million guests each year from throughout the world.

Over 10,000 ice carvers use 150,000 square metres of snow and 180,000 square metres of ice from the nearby Songhua River to create this magical world each year. The festival opens with a dramatic fireworks display on January 5^th and, depending on how long the cold temperatures hold out, can last until March. However, pickaxe-wielding visitors have, in recent years, been invited to smash the works themselves at the end of February.

Snow and ice sculptures illuminated at night at the Ice Lantern Festival, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China

With winter temperatures plummeting to well below minus 30°C, keeping warm can be a challenge. To combat the cold, organizers set up ‘warm rooms’ where visitors can enjoy a hot chocolate in between dog sledding, ice skating and gazing at the exhibits. There are even dance sessions to keep the frost at bay.

Some locals, however, choose to embrace the cold, taking part in the annual ice swimming competition. Before the opening of the annual festival, hundreds of swimming enthusiasts plunge into a pool cut out from the ice of the Songhua River, which runs from Russia into the town of Harbin.

The festival itself features two main impressive theme parks. In the Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo, giant mythical figures join fantastical animals carved from tonnes of the white stuff. Then, the Ice and Snow World is where you’ll find ice buildings, which have included pagodas, a replica of Rome’s Coliseum and China’s Great Wall, in the past. While it’s worth a whole day’s visit, this icy metropolis reveals its true magic in the evening, when coloured lights within the constructions create a sense of otherworldliness.

A sled ride at the Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival at Sun Island Park, Harbin

The beautiful Ice Lantern Show at the Zhaolin Park was the original forerunner to the whole event, which began in 1963 when traditional fishermen’s lanterns, carved from ice, went from being practical tools to works of art. The festival was put on hold during the Cultural Revolution but resumed in 1985.

Harbin is located in the northernmost province of China, just a few hours south of Siberian Russia. Its unique character is a result of Russian control of the area during the construction of the Trans-Manchurian Railroad to Vladivostok. Once they’ve enjoyed the awe-inspiring ice creations, visitors can seek out the old quarter, in which examples of Russian architecture still remain, having avoided destruction during the Cultural Revolution. One of Harbin’s most beautiful Russian buildings – the ornate Church of St Sophia – now forms a historical haven in the centre of the city. But attractions beyond the festival are not limited to the city – there is also a tiger sanctuary nearby – China’s largest park for wild Siberian tigers.

Snow and ice sculptures illuminated at the Ice Lantern Festival, Harbin