Attractions about Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival

    Harbin is known as one of the birthplaces of the world ice and snow culture. Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival has been celebrated annually since 1985. It officially starts January 5 and lasts one month.
Giant ice sculptures exhibitions, ice carving activities, skiing adventure, sledding, winter swimming, wedding ceremony on ice…all the winter activities will be held here. Harbin, the place where you can have a wonderful winter holiday! The highlights during the festival are the following places.

                            
Sun Island

    Across the River Songhua, which can be reached by cable car, by horse, or by simply walking across the frozen river, lies Sun Island. It is the center of the fabulous "White Snow Carving Gala", and features enormous "Snow" carvings. In winter, tourists from all over the world will gather here to start their skiing tour. Make snow men, take the sleds draw by the horses or dogs, go sled sailing, participate in the Snow Sculpture Faire... lots of activities you can join.

 
Ice Lantern Art Fair

Harbin is the home of the Ice Lantern Art. It has been successfully held in Zhaolin Park in Harbin since in 1963. This ice lantern art fair is now the biggest and oldest one of its kind, and the largest outdoor ice lantern art fair with the classic traditional programs. The materials of the lantern are provided from the ice in the Songhua River. The artists from all over the world will display you myriad fantastic lanterns before you! Ice building, ice sculptures, ice waterfalls, ice sliding boards, ice calligraphy, ice miniature gardens, ice flowers, ice mountains...form a wonder garden here, wherever you move, what come into your sight is the diverse beautiful lanterns.

If you are lucky, you may participate in the international sculpture competition in Zhaolin Park. But in a word, visit the Ice Lantern Fair, don’t miss it during your Harbin trip.

Ice and Snow World

With various themes every year, Ice and Snow World has been reputed as the Ice Disneyland of the world. It combines snow with sightseeing, entertainment, and participation. In the Ice and Snow World garden, you will enjoy over 2,000 scenic points or sights, join many activities, admire the most beautiful, most grand and most charming ice and snow wonders. Drink in the ice bars, visit the ice inns or hotels, play golf or football games on the snow ground, and go ice rock-climbing or treasure hunting in the ice labyrinth.... Visit there at night, you will see an ice fairyland decorating with colorful lights. At that time, your dreams of the ice and snow will come true there.

Harbin Winter Swimming--dare to Challenge it?

Do you dare to challenge it? Like swim in the icy water?

  On January 2nd, some winter swimming enthusiasts who weren’t afraid of minus 20 degrees temperatures went winter swimming in the cold weather to greet the arrival of the New Year in the Songhua River of the ice city Harbin.

   

  Harbin is an ice city in China. Winter swimming is a very popular sport in Harbin, especially during the International Ice and Snow Festival.  The Swimmer in the icy water in winter while the other people admire them, wearing thick clothes. Combining bodybuilding and performance, winter swimming is, in a sense, a combat against the chilly weather. Maybe the water on your body will freeze in less than second. Therefore, many tourists consider it as an incredible sport by brave people. Dare to challenge it?

Harbin Winter Activities

Harbin is the ice and snow city in China. The best time to visit it is in winter. There are various kinds of fun activities during your Harbin winter holiday, such as winter swimming in Songhua River, ice skating, sledding… Of course the biggest attraction in winter Harbin is the Snow and ice Festival and the Disney Ice Lantern Park at Zhaolin Park. Snow carving and ice and snow recreations are world famous.

  Harbin Ice and Snow World is a fascinating winter wonderland containing 160,000 cubic meters of ice and 120,000 of snow. With more than 2000 ice and snow art sculptures on display, this park is a must-see destination for any visitor when they go to Harbin.  Sports and activities such as skiing, ice-skating, riding snow scooters, snow slides, snow football, snowball fights, golf lessons on the snow, ice climbing and even the chance to experience outer space. The most exciting and scary activity on offer is a 200 meter long slide. The best time to participate in the activities is at night when special shows and performances are represented.

   The second biggest winter attraction in Harbin is the Disney themed Harbin Ice Lantern Park. The park includes all the famous Disney characters such as Mickey and Friends, the Little Mermaid, the Disney Princess, Pinocchio and Winnie the Pooh. The park is spectacular for both adults and children alike.

Chinese Most Traditional Art-- Chinese Stone Carving

The history of Chinese Stone Carving can be traced to 1,200,000 years ago (Neolithic Age). It is the most traditional art forms in the human history, and also one brilliant page in Chinese cultural and civilization history. Chinese Stone carving has been prosperous from generation to generation. It was considered as a group of carving and sculpture. It means using different kinds of hard materials that can be carved to create various artistic images or shape. The stone carving can reflect the social life and express the the Artists’ aesthetic sense or an ideal art.

Materials and Process Procedures

The materials of the sculpture should be solid and can resist corrosion or weathering. Many of it are stone, wood, jade, plaster, resin, clay… The Chinese stone carving consists of various kinds. The followings are the general processing procedures: choosing the materials first, then model making, blanks forming, product shaping, polishing, cleaning, product assembling, inspection and packing. With the development of the society, the stone carving can be processed by machines. However, the traditional processing tool is by hand.

Styles

 Engraved with different delicate pictures or images, Chinese Stone Carving was classified to many types, such as blue stone carving, marble stone carving, jade carving, steatite carving, smoky quartz sculpture, Colored stone carving, Pebbles carving... The blue stone carving in Huian, Fujian is famous for its building decoration and stone lions. The stone lions have a good reputation in Southeast Asia. The marble stone carving in Yunnan is very wonderful. The different patterns on it are vivid and lifelike. The jade carving in Quyang,Hebei was used to palace decoration in Ming and Qing Dynasties. And now it is used to decorate the public or the memorial buildings, such as the Great Hall of the People, the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. In Liaoning and Shandong province, Steatite carving features the lovely animal stone carving. The skills of the stone carving are intaglio, sculptural relief...

Masterpieces of Chinese Stone Carvings

   Chinese Stone carving are widely used in people’s life. Many people are fond of jade. The jade is a typical craft of stone carving. The traditional jade has a collections value and a fabulous economic value. It is very popular in China. One of the most important and artistic things of it is the pictures, images or letters on the stone carving. The shape of the stone carving are various, stone carving buildings, bridge, grottos, tombs, palace, temples, Buddha, statues, towers, tables… The famous masterpieces of Chinese Stone Carving are Dunhuang Mogao Grottos in Gansu, Yungang Grotto in Shanxi, Longmen Grotto in Henan, The Terracotta Warriors in Shaanxi, Summer Palace and the Forbidden City in Beijing, Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan… all of which are the famous tourist attractions in China. China Stone Carving Art Festival is celebrated every year. It indicates the rapid development of Chinese Stone carving, even the culture and art.

World Famous Ice and Snow Festival—Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival

Do you want to challenge it? Winter swimming, ice hockey, soccer match on snow land, alpine skiing invitational tournament, ice sculpture competition, International ice sculpture competition, speed skating…

Exiting Ski Adventure

    Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang China, is famous for its dazzling Ice and Snow Festival . It starts on December 1, 2010 and last to February 28, 2011. The ceremony will be officially held in January 5, 2011. The festival is one of the largest ice and snow festivals in the world, attracting tens of thousands of tourists every year.
  

  The festival includes ice lantern and sculpture exhibitions. Thousands of ice lanterns, ice carvings and snow sculptures turn the city into a dreamlike world, a world of pure whiteness and gleaming crystal. Blocks of ice from the Songhua River provide the material for the sculptures. Competitors use knives and saws to carve the large blocks into animals, mythical figures, buildings, or copies of artworks. Teams of sculptors come from as far away as Britain, Canada, Malaysia ,the United States …During the festival, fantastic events are held, like fireworks display, winter swimming, ice hockey games, football games on the snow ground, skiing races, speed skating races, ice sculpture competition, poetry jamboree, wedding ceremony and ice & snow cinematics festival. All these events have attracted numerous snow enthusiasts from around the world to visit Harbin every year.

Wedding Ceremony on Ice

  A highlight of the festival is "Ice and Snow World" - the world's largest amusement park devoted to ice and snow.