Harbin Ice Festival

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in northeast China is one of the biggest winter festivals in the world. Huge blocks of ice are cut from the frozen Songhua River and turned into castles, towers and sculptures, some of them the size of real buildings.

The festival is at its most impressive after dark, when colored lights shine through the ice and the whole place glows. Winters in Harbin are very cold, so the wind-chill check on this page is worth a look before you go.