Chillin’ in Harbin
Ice City temperatures reach -35 Degrees Celsius
HARBIN is one of the major cities situated in the northern eastern parts of China and is nicknamed the ‘Ice City’ due to it’s freezing winters.
Due to the city being situated under the direct influence of the Siberian Anticyclone, the average daily temperature is −19.7 °C in winter, with temperature lows reaching −35.0 °C.
Therefore the city decorates itself with various styles of Ice and snow Sculptures from December to March every year, creating a large population of tourists.
Actual replica sized ice sculptures range from the Roman Colosseum to the Empire State Building.
The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival started in 1985 and is one of the four largest ice and snow festivals in the world.
The city gets divided into two main exhibition areas, namely the enormous snow sculptures at Sun Island and the separate ‘Ice and Snow World’ that operates each night with lights switched on, illuminating the sculptures from both inside and outside.
Ice and Snow World features illuminated full-size buildings made from blocks of 2–3 feet thick crystal clear ice directly taken from the Songhua River which passes through the city.
The sculptures inside the exhibition ground takes 15,000 workers to work for 16 days. In early December, ice artisans cut 120,000 cubic metres (4.2 million cubic feet) of ice blocks from Songhua river’s frozen surface as raw materials for the ice sculptures’ show. Massive ice buildings, large-scale snow sculptures, ice slides, festival food and drinks can also be found in several parks and major avenues in the city.
Winter activities in the festival include Yabuli Alpine Skiing, snow mobile driving, winter-swimming in Songhua River, and the traditional ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden, which was first held in 1963.
Despite this major attraction, Harbin is renowned for its culinary tradition.
Cuisine of Harbin consist of European flavor dishes and Chinese Northern flavor dishes mainly typified by heavy sauce and deep-frying.
One of the most famous dishes in Northeastern Chinese cuisine is Guo Bao Rou, a form of sweet and sour pork.
