The low average temperatures make it possible: In north-eastern China it is not only frosty in winter, but also very cold. Temperatures can drop as much as 40 degrees below zero in January and February.
This deep-freeze climate doesn’t exactly attract vacationers to the region. But the city of Harbin, a metropolis with just under five million inhabitants, has made a virtue out of cold hardship: For years the metropolis has been holding an ice and snow festival, which has now established itself as the largest and most complex event of its kind worldwide.
Several theme parks are spread over an area of 750,000 square meters: In addition to the Ice Lantern Fair at Zhaolin Park, there is the International Snow Sculpture Art Expo on the side of the Songhua River facing away from the city in the Sun Island Recreation Park. In the Ice and Snow World, which is also open at night, are the huge buildings that were erected over weeks of work from blocks of ice up to one meter high. These skyscrapers, churches and palaces are illuminated by colored LEDs in the evening.
Preparations for the frosty event began at the beginning of December. Workers cut millions of cubic meters of ice from the already frozen Songhua River. The whole spectacle is subsidized by the state.
Because with the Olympic Winter Games starting in Beijing on February 4, 2022, China is currently spending a lot of money to promote winter sports: The number of Chinese winter sports facilities has almost quadrupled in the past ten years.
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