The annual Ice Festival is Harbin's main winter draw, The Harbin International Ice Festival only started about 10 years ago, and it is already one of world's four biggest such ice and snow festivals, along with the famous ones in Sapporo, Norway and Quebec. At first, mainly Chinese participated, but in the last few years, it has become an international festival and competition. As the festival grows in international participation and as China's economy grows, the size of the snow sculpture and ice architecture exhibits keeps growing. Now, the work going into making these exhibits is astounding, and their size and beauty is amazing. Last year, tens of thousands of people labored on the displays.
Walking around the three venues, you'll see world record-sized snow sculptures longer than two football fields, and some ice buildings, palaces, monuments, or statues about 50 meters tall (160 feet high) that you can walk and slide around in and on. These displays are technologically sophisticated, using computer controlled LED and regular lighting to put on stunning displays of changing color and design. For example, there was a replica of the Great Wall of China that people could slide on. Many of the architecture replicas have ice slides. Harbin is called “Ice City,” and the winters are bitterly cold, but the conditions are right for the ice festival.