The northern Chinese city of Harbin is also called the "Ice City".It is the capital city of China's northernmost province, Heilongjiang, and is a modern metropolis of 2.6 million people. Located along the Russia Chinese border, it's culture is a rich and diverse mixture of many minorities from aross Asia and neighboring countries. Many Russian refugees who fled the Revolution in 1917 call Harbin their home. The construction of the Chinese Eastern railway helped industrialize the city, making it the number one manutacturing location in North-eastern China.

Harbi is also a major processing facility center for such commodities as, soy beans, sugar beets, leather, and tobacco. More technologically directed factories procuce electric power turbine, plastics, and equipment for oil field exploration and drilling. Why then is Harbin's most famous claim to fame is it's yeary Snow-Ice Festival?



For years Harbin was nothing more than a small dot on the map, an isolated fishing village. Variuos rivers are situated close to Harbin. During the long cold winters it was common prectice for local fisherman to carve ice blocks into rudimentary lamp shades or even hollow bulbs. These were set over candles to prevent them from being blown out by the frigid wind. This age-old custom was officially introduced at the first ice lantern show organized in 1963. Citizens crafted actual replicas of ice lanterns used by their ancestors, and placed candles inside them to illuminate their creations. The show was a success and from then on it became an annual tradition.

The Harbin Ice-Snow Festival is held at Zaolin Park from New Year's Day until the middle of February. The first Harbin Ice-Snow festival was held in 1985. The festival has been held every year since then and has now become one of the world's four largest ice and snow festivals, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec Winter Carnival, and Norway's Ski Festival.



These days however are not just for local citizens putting their carved lanterns on display. The International Ice Carving Contest attracts talented ice sculpters from all over the world working alone or as a team. Using chainsaws and other special ice carving tools, they turn hundreds of blocks of ice from the Songhua River into semi-transparent masterpieces of many different shapes, sizes, and themes. Some of the more recent designs have been political figures, televison and movie legends, comic book heros, fairytale characters and their glittering castles, groupings of animals and plants, a reproduction of an artist's favorite science fiction story, and even recognizable landmarks as a Japanise pagoda, The Great Wall of China, and the Taj Mahal.



During the daylight hours these intricate ice carvings are quite breathtaking. At night the are spectacular. Thousands of feet of neon lighting are rigged inside each of the carvings, and once lit, they turn Zaolin Park into a surrean and dazzling landscape. Thousands of people travel to Harbin to either take part in, or attend the Ice-Snow Fsestival.