Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival is a family-friendly, fun-filled destination featuring award-winning ice sculptures. Ice sculptures are abundant in Harbin City, with Sun Island and Ice and Snow World being the primary attractions for 18 million yearly tourists.
Ice & Snow World is open at night and exhibits lit ice buildings made to size. A snow sculptor reproduced the Empire State Building in 2014, and a 101-foot ice tower shaped like a flamenco dancer’s outfit was constructed in 2018.
Sun Island, across the river, offers a variety of big snow sculptures and is open daily. A Guinness World Record holder for the world’s largest snow sculpture was shown in this exhibition area in 2007.
China unveils world’s biggest ice CITY filled with vast frozen skyscrapers in area as big as 300 football pitches
It utilized almost 42,000 cubic feet of snow and was 820ft long and 28ft tall. The project has two parts: a Niagara Falls reenactment and a Bering Strait crossing. Harbin City offers ice lantern exhibitions and winter sports including skiing, swimming, and ice riding.
Visitors may also explore ice mazes, slide down ice slides, and fight snowballs. They also built a towering snowflake ferris wheel this year so guests can see the entire winter wonderland from above.
The event is one of the world’s finest winter festivals, bringing in 28.7 billion yuan (£3.2 billion) annually. Each inch of this winter paradise is handcrafted from Songhua River ice. Ice blocks weigh hundreds of kilos and are cut with swing saws.
They’re hauled out of the water with industrial hooks, dragged to the shore, and loaded into an army of trucks for Harbin Ice and Snow World by forklifts.
Ice sculptors then carve their creations with tiny saws, chisels, and ice picks. Many toil night and day to finish their sculptures for the event. Deionized water is utilized to make glass-clear ice, and colorful lights are employed to thrill festival goers at night.
One travel guide stated: “I’ve always struggled with winter, or the concept of it. I’ve connected winter with pain and sorrow, regardless of how I feel about the cold, and have tried to ignore its presence.
“I freely traveled to one of the coldest places on Earth at 30. “It was bizarre and magical—not only because it shattered one of my biggest existential obstacles. I was ecstatic at China’s Harbin Ice and Snow Festival.
“Three days here made up for all the ‘winter wonderland’ magic I’ve missed most of the rest of my life and, believe it or not, it’s even made me eager to explore more wintry destinations.”
Due to its closeness to Siberia, Harbin in northeast China has a frigid environment with yearly lows of -35 degrees. The event began in 1963 as part of Harbin’s ice lantern exhibition but swiftly grew.
Over 2 million square feet and 900,000 cubic feet of snow and ice are used each year during the festival. With its grand opening ceremony on December 17, the event has no closing date, but the ice melts in March. This surpasses London’s predicted Winter Wonderland.
The Christmas attraction has been criticized for utilizing two blackface advertisements as decorations this year. A visitor was astonished by the 1900s artwork and shared a video on social media.
Nazlee Radboy captioned her TikTok tape, stating: “Whether these posters are ‘fake’ or ‘a part of circus history,’ we should question why we still have circuses.”
William H. West organized the company, which performed racist comedy in blackface. The Winter Funland Christmas market in Manchester has been criticized for being expensive and fraudulent.
A parent told Manchester Evening News that the attraction is overhyped.Have seen better at Heaton Park. According to the website, it’s best for children under nine, but I’d suggest up to six.
Funfair sweets like candy floss cost £4, which was outrageous. “The ice skating rink is too small for comfortable skating. About five youngsters supervised by adults could fit on it. No staff other than ride operators was present.