Festivals of the World Series – Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival (Part 3)

Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival is a fantabulous festival held in China. It is the world's largest ice and snow festival held in the province of Heilongjiang. Skilled sculptures artistically demonstrate their spectacular skills in carving prominent figures, skyscrapers, buildings, palaces and many more.

Spread over a looming area of almost 600,000 square meters, it hosts creations of sculptors from 12 countries around the world. It started first in 1963, then was discontinued. After that, it resumed again in 1985 and has been continuing until today with its fame expanding exponentially each year.

The festival hosts many winter events, sports, and fairs around four theme parks. The famous among the parks is the Harbin Ice and Snow World park. It showcases exclusive sculptures of buildings, figures, scintillating shows and many kinds of winter activities. There are two theme parks for displaying the illuminated and sparkling ice lanterns, the Zhaolin Park Ice Lantern Fair and the Wanda Ice Lantern World. There is another theme park that exhibits amazing snow sculptures, it is the Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo.

Though the festival is officially inaugurated on the 5th of January every year the duration spans from Dec 24th till the end of February. Tourists from different parts of the world especially select this time of the year to visit China and enjoy every nook and corner of the festival. It is a dazzling experience to watch the intricate works of the sculptors with ice and snow. The night presents a mind-blowing experience as the multi-colored lights gleam on the sculptors to demonstrate a striking view of beauty and ecstasy.

Several sculpture competitions and winter sports tournaments are also held participated by artists and sports personnel from many countries. An ice and snow carnival is also held in the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. You can watch or be a part of the interesting winter sports like skiing, sledging, sliding,  skating, ice football, and ice hockey. Song and dance shows are also held, performed by lively and talented entertainers.

In 2019, the festival completed its 35^th year of celebration, embellished with almost 2019 snowmen with distinct looks and carvings. The key highlight was the gigantic ice statue of Buddha, constructed with 4500 cubic meters of snow. Huge castles and buildings of ice were created, shimmering with the beaming lights. Ice slides were crafted to replicate the remarkable Northern Lights. Sculptors from various countries participated in the annual competitions, displaying their wonderful creations.

The night presents an exhilarating episode of lights glimmering on the skillfully built sculptures. The glitters and the shimmers mesmerize thousands of visitors who come to enliven themselves in the Harbin festival. It is one of the finest places to be included in your itinerary of China tour. Adventure lovers and sports admirers can also entertain and amuse themselves with the diversifications in ice sports and water activities.

The striking display of brilliantly carved and chiseled sculptures astonishes the visitors every year. Harbin Ice and Snow festival brings out the immense talent concealed within world-renowned artists and presents in front of thousands of visitors.

Featured image is from cnn.com