World’s largest Ice Festival held in China

The world’s largest ice festival “International Ice and Snow Festival” was organized in China’s Harbin.

• Harbin is one of the coolest cities in China.
• This is the 34th edition of the International Ice and Snow Festival which is known for its gigantic illuminated sculptures.
• The festival is made up of several theme zones. The main attraction being the Harbin Ice and Snow World, which covers more than 750,000 square meters and features up to 180,000 cubic metres of ice.
• Sculptures from all over the world come to participate in this festival.
• It features sculptures of Moscow’s Red Square and Bangkok’s Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
• The most remarkable thing about the event is the fact that the ice is sourced from Harbin’s Songhua River. More than 50 farmers worked for 20 days to supply Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival’s sculptures with blocks of ice from water.
• Since 1985, the Harbin International Ice and Snow festival has become one of the biggest snow festival destinations in the world.

About the festival

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival is an annual winter festival that takes place with a theme in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. It is now the largest ice and snow festival in the world. The festival includes world’s biggest ice sculptures. The two main exhibition areas are the Sun Island and the Ice and Snow World. The festival originated in Harbin’s traditional ice lantern show and a garden party that takes place in winter. In 2001, the Harbin’s Ice Festival was merged with Heilongjiang’s International Ski Festival and got its formal name as the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival.