Haerbin's Ice and Snow Festival

After a couple of days travelling from Guangzhou, via Beijing, I finally reached Harbin (哈尓滨) early one morning. Alighting the train, it was like stepping into one of those giant freezers, with an added howling gale, which swept up the powdery snow off the platform and circulated it around in the air as if in a mini-whirlwind. Fortunately outside, the wind was not so noticeable, but at around minus 15 degrees, it was still a bit cold. The first thing you see as you step outside Harbin station square (apart from the piles of ice and snow) is a huge ice sculpture, an indication of the main focus of attention for this part of China during the winter months. Slowly negotiating the pavements and roads which is just like permanently walking along on a sheet of ice, I found my way to my hotel and checked into my oven like room. More varying contrasts in temperature in such a short space of time, I have never experienced.

So why would I chose to go somewhere so cold ? I'm not a skier, snowboarder or winter sportsman really, my reason is to check what the famous Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture & Lantern Festivals are all about. I've seen these in the news before and I saw some ice sculptures in Leiden, Netherlands last year (indoors in an artificially cooled room), but here they have the biggest and best in the world allegedly, so why not check it out.

Harbin is so different to other Chinese cities, especially the area North of the train station up to and over the Songhua River. It is in parts very Russian-like, due to its close proximity to the Siberian Russia border and its history of Russian workers living in the area building rail connections from Vladivostock through Harbin to the Chinese port of Dalian. The main shopping street is a prime example of this with Russian/European style buildings subtly illuminated by lamps, rather than with glowing strips of neon lighting. Shop names are displayed with carved symbols, advertising on printed billboards, no bright neon flashing signs here as in most Chinese cities, quite a change. There are also many "Russian Shop"s selling the usual Russian souvenirs such as matroeshkes (those wooden multiple-doll things), communist memorabilia, badges, uniforms and of course Russian vodka. There is also an Orthodox Cathedral
which is of huge interest to the Chinese visitors who if they have not been outside of China have probably never seen such a building before ! So it is of course surrounded by Chinese people posing to have photos taken.


Harbin City



Left: Harbin station, early morning and the first ice sculpture of the day.
Centre: Harbin's Russian Orthodox Church, St Sofia's
Right : Harbin's main shopping street (Zhongyang Dajie) by night

So, onto the festivals:


Snow Festival

Walk across the Songhua river or take a horse & cart and then stroll around the quiet Sun Island, which contains a Russian Village with Russian style shops and cafes, large parks with snow sculptures, lakes which are of course now frozen solid and various recreational activities such as ice/snow slides, ice skating rinks, husky pulled sledges and snow buggies which you can drive around on the frozen lake.


Left: Street of houses, many were not just solid snow, but had shops inside.
Centre: A snow castle
Right: Looking along the Songhua river, while standing in the middle.


Ice Lantern Festival at Night (Zhaolin Park)

The ice sculptures are apparently made from ice blocks taken from the Songhua River once it has frozen over. There is a diverse collection of sculptures, including churches, pagodas, cartoon characters, bridges and walkways, a full-size stage, chess-set, a disney style castle with long ice slides and steps, everything is made entirely from blocks of ice. In the evening they are all illuminated with colourful lighting which turns the park into a bit of a winter wonderland. There are too many sculptures to be able to give a good overview without overloading this page with photos, but here are a few examples:


Left: Illuminated pagoda (and church in background)
Centre: The entrance to Zhaolin Park
Right: Chinese New Year Pigs (2007 will be year of the pig).


Ice Lantern Festival in the Day (Zhaolin Park)


Left: Ice Bridge.
Centre: Ice archways.
Right: Too late ! These poor fish didn't move around quick enough ;)

Since my visit I have found out (damn that Rough Guide for omitting this) that an even bigger snow and ice sculpture park also exists called "Harbin Snow and Ice World" !! I searched lots on the internet before the festival and found nothing to tell me what was going on in Harbin, other than the basic info of "ice lantern festival, annually Jan5 - Feb5, Zhaolin Park" and so knew nothing of this other park that has been holding the festival for 8 years now. Unfortunately being rather busy during the first few weeks the festival was going on I neglected to do any further research before I arrived and so just went by my guide book and what I gleaned from the one tourist tout I found there, who spoke any English. But, it turns out from info now readily available on the net, that I missed what is apparently the biggest and best part of the whole thing !!! Damn. Thoughts of returning have been dealt a blow by the newsflash I spotted on TV, that due to the unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures touching zero degrees and above in Harbin, organizers have decided to end the festival early and began demolishing the sculptures at the weekend. Damn, damn, damn global warming (that's who the Chinese news blame anyway). Looks like I will have to go back again next year, well at least I have the warm coat now. Going back again would be no great issue as Harbin is a decent place to visit. As well as the festivals, there are plenty of winter recreational activities going on and I also found two decent places to go out in the evenings, the Russian Bar and the Blues Bar, where I found plenty of young Chinese wanting to practice English with me, it was fun couple of nights out in Harbin, I look forward to visiting again next year now!