Harbin 2012

A three day weekend beginning on 31 December saw us head up to Harbin from Nanjing. Temperatures there had been well below 0°C for some weeks allowing blocks of ice to be taken from the river and large quantities of artificial snow to have been made since the beginning of the month.

(More photos can be found here.)

The main entrance to the festival.

As we were there a week before the official opening, only 80% of the sculptures had been finished and as a result there are some dark patches in some of the photos of heaps of snow and the odd bench spoiling an other wise a good photo opportunity.

All photos were taken with my Canon 450D and EF-S 17-85mm lens. A tripod was used for the shots taken at night time. In temperatures as low as -26°C, the camera, lens and battery performed exceptionally well. (The only condensation problems being when we went into the coffee shop to warm up. However this soon disappeared when we went back out.)

The Holiday Inn in Harbin was very comfortable but too warm inside. A 50C difference in temperature from our hotel room to outside took some getting used to in dressing for outside when our room felt like +26°C and it was -26°C outside!

The hotel was at the end of the main street which had been closed off and was dedicated to the festival with ice sculpture every few metres. These came alive after dark when the lights were turned on.



Turkey, main street Harbin

Ice carvers come from far away places. Lots of Russian influence in Harbin.

At work in the main street of Harbin

Main street carving

As day drew to a close the lights came on and the carvings came alive. The blocks of ice either had holes drilled in them after being cut from the river of water had been poured into special molds so that coloured lights could be thread through. The effect at night in the Ice Village was stunning as some of the following photos show.

Harbin ice village

A visit to one of these ice festivals, only four in the world, is worthy of a "bucket list". The above shot shows why. The blocks of snow in the middle of the photo are not lit as they were yet to be completed when we were there - the festival was due to open a week later.



The ice village

Some of the ice sculptures had been finished and looked absolutely awesome. Apologies about not having time to check the background which is a little distracting. At the temperatures prevailing I didn't hang around in one spot too long. A faster lens would do the trick - maybe next time  ..... I think not.

Praying mantis

Snow crystal



Angel

This would have been one of my best shots except for the fact that the carvers had not removed their table. It was not possible to easily shift it either. I loved the transparency of the ice and the lovely blue colours.



Harbin ice building, the ICBC Bank



Advertising comes in all shapes and sizes.

Before the day draws to a close, a visit to the snow park was full of surprises. Harbin does not get enough natural snow but as it remains well below freezing from the end of November, snow making provides endless supplies to be pushed into big heaps and trucked around.



Service area - a good way of hiding the utilities building

Blocks of snow for the snow sculpture competition.



Main feature at Harbin

I believe this sculpture took about a month to complete and had around 100 working on it. At about 100m long it is certainly very impressive and reflects the Russian influence in Harbin. Harbin is in the northeast of China and is around 60km from the Siberian border, Vladivostok being to the southeast.



Russian Orthodox church in snow.

Stalin in snow

There is a large Siberian tiger reserve nearby which we visited the next day. These magnificent animals are few in number in their natural habitat. Less than 200 left in the wild. The breeding centre here has around 800 tigers but unfortunately they cannot be released back into the wild. A tiger's territory is around ten thousand square kilometres and there simply isn't anywhere large enough left.

Siberian tigers - the largest of the tiger species.

A flying visit to Harbin in the middle of winter for three days was enough to see all there is to see there. Thanks to the China Culture Centre for organising a great trip.

And finally, you know you are in China when ........

Farewell from Harbin airport

Larger sized and more photos can be found here.