Harbin Ice Festival

At minus 15 degrees, we landed in Harbin located in north eastern China just below Russia to see the Ice Festival that lasts about 5 weeks! Upon arrival, we donned our winter gear and every layer of clothing we could muster and headed out into the bitter cold.

The snow sculptures, that last about 3 months, were breath-taking! Blocks of snow are stacked and then sculptors work their magic. It took more than a hundred sculptors 10 days working 10 hour days in 20 below temperatures to create this stunning snow sculpture - the largest in the world.

Dusting off new snow from "Snow Fairy Dance"

After 2 hours at the Snow Park we headed back to the hotel to get warm and then once the sun set headed out to the Ice Festival Park. Huge blocks of ice are cut out of the nearby river and hollowed out to string lights through the center. They are then stacked and carved!

Ice Festival stage where we danced Gangnam style!

The thermometer behind Phil says it is -20 degrees

Stairway to the Ice Slides

Of course Phil had to do the Ice Slide

Food stalls selling frozen candy coated fruits!

The next day we headed downtown by the river where the kids were skating, sliding and playing games on the ice. Brrr . . .

I truly don't know how anyone can live in these temperatures. The native Chinese look very eskimo-like and were not affected by the sub zero temperatures. 

Enough of the winter temps for me. We head to Langkawi, Malaysia this week where it is 90 degrees and very tropical!

xoxo, Kathy & Phil