Harbin, the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, originally meaning “a place for drying fishing nets” in Manchu word, is known for its bitterly cold winters and is often called the “Ice City”. Harbin is well known for its beautiful ice sculptures in winter and plays an important part in Sino-Russian trade. In the 1920s, the city was considered China’s fashion capital as new designs from Paris and Moscow reached there first before arriving in Shanghai. The constructions and the cuisine in Harbin are Russian influenced.
Harbin’s average temperature in summer is 21.2 degrees Celsius, −16.8 degrees Celsius in winter. The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has been held since 1985. Although the official start date is January 5th each year, in practice, many of the sculptures can be seen before. While there are ice sculptures throughout the city, there are two main exhibition areas: Enormous snow sculptures at Sun Island (a recreational area on the opposite side of the Songhua River from the city) and the separate “Ice and Snow World” that operates each night. Ice and Snow World features illuminated full size buildings made from blocks of 2–3 feet thick crystal clear ice directly taken from Songhua River which passes through the city. Winter activities in the festival include Yabuli Alpine Skiing, winter-swimming in Songhua River, and the ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden. Snow carving and ice and snow recreations in Harbin are world famous.
The “Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival” is one of the four largest ice and snow festivals in the world, along with Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada’'s Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway’s Ski Festival....