International Ice and Snow Festival (Harbin)

What: The Worlds biggest win­ter fes­ti­val, Harbin’s ice and win­ter fes­ti­val takes advan­tage of the  ‑25 °C weath­er as 10,000 work­ers cut, haul and shape over 220,000 cubic metres of ice into tow­er­ing struc­tures, includ­ing cas­tles, palaces and trains and plays host to a series of ice relat­ed com­pe­ti­tions, includ­ing sledg­ing, ice hock­ey, ice foot­ball, ski­ing and for those crazy enough a swim­ming com­pe­ti­tion across the frozen water of the Songhua Riv­er.

Along­side the ice, the fes­ti­val also hosts a cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tion of Harbin region, with local food, dance and cus­toms on dis­play and each night fin­ish­es with both fire­works and series of ani­ma­tions and light shows pro­ject­ed onto the ice blocks at the snow world exhi­bi­tions, which com­bined with the snow-themed group wed­ding cer­e­monies that take place dur­ing the fes­ti­val, is enough to warm your spir­its dur­ing the freez­ing fes­ti­val.

When: Offi­cial­ly the Harbin Ice and Snow Fes­ti­val starts on the 5^th Jan­u­ary and lasts till the 28^th of Feb­ru­ary, how­ev­er some exhibits will open on Christ­mas eve, it’s advised to keep an eye on the weath­er charts and reports, as some exhibits will close ear­ly or be can­celled best on weath­er con­di­tions.

Where: The Fes­ti­val takes place in Harbin Chi­na, and is divid­ed into three main exhibits, Sun Island, Zhaolin Park and the main attrac­tion The Grand World of Ice and Snow. In terms of get­ting there flights from Bei­jing to Harbin are reg­u­lar and the fes­ti­val can be done as a day trip if nec­es­sary with taxis from the air­port to the ice site tak­ing around an hour, if stay­ing local­ly there are a series of bus­es that ser­vice the ice sta­tion dur­ing the fes­ti­val and tick­ets includ­ing trans­port can be pur­chased local­ly if desired.

Dura­tion: The fes­ti­val offi­cial­ly lasts from the 5^th of Jan­u­ary to the 28^th of Feb, with each of the three exhibits hav­ing dif­fer­ing open­ing times dur­ing this peri­od; Sun Island is open from 8:30am to 7pm, The Grand World of Ice and Snow from 9am – 9pm and Zhaolin Park from 9am – 8pm.

Tick­ets:  The event and access to the zones is tick­et­ed, with tick­ets avail­able for pur­chase at the site, local­ly or through tour oper­a­tors (which nor­mal­ly includes a mul­ti-day pack­age). Again prices for entry to each exhib­it dif­fer with entry to Sun Island cost­ing 240 RMB per adult , entry to the Grand World of Ice and Snow cost­ing 300 RMB and entry to Zhaolin Park cost­ing 150 RMB.

Need to Know: This fes­ti­val among all oth­ers car­ry a wrap up warm warn­ing, with sub-zero cloth­ing, sun­glass­es and the con­sump­tion of lots of flu­ids an absolute must when attend­ing the Harbin’s ice and win­ter fes­ti­val.

More Infor­ma­tion: For more infor­ma­tion on the fes­ti­val, includ­ing his­to­ry and what to expect at each event, the web­site (https://www.chinahighlights.com) has real­ly use­ful guide for both the fes­ti­val and vis­it­ing Chi­na as a whole.