Harbin Ice Festival

Harbin Ice Festival, officially named Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, is the largest and most important annual winter carnival in the world. It consists of five theme parks, namely Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo, Harbin Ice and Snow World, Harbin Wanda Ice Lantern World,  Zhaolin Park Ice Lantern Fair, and Songhua River Ice and Snow Carnival. Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo is a theme park for the snow sculptures, Both Harbin Wanda Ice Lantern World and Zhaolin Park Ice Lantern Fair are  theme parks for the ice lanterns. Wanda Ice Lantern World is much bigger than Zhaolin Park Ice Lantern Fair and features a lot of ice lanterns, winter activities and shows. Harbin Ice and Snow World is a theme park for the  ice/snow sculptures, shows, lighted ice buildings and all kinds of ice/snow activities. It is the most important theme park of the festival. Songhua River Ice and Snow Carnival is a theme park on the icy Songhua River, which features many ice and snow sculptures and many interesting winter activities. 

Origin and History

Harbin Ice Festival originated from local Harbiner traditional ice lantern show garden party (aka ice lantern fair) in winter. Its history can be dated back to last century. The festival first started in 1963 as a small event to showcase local ice sculpting talent in Zhaolin Park. From 1978 to 1982, many tourists flocked to Harbin to see the ice lanterns, more and more local people began to enjoy some winter activities, such as skating, snow skiing, sledding, ice sailing, winter swimming , and they held many ice/snow sculpture competitions during these years. This tendency drew the attention of the concerned departments. Some officials of Propaganda Department of Harbin Municipal Party Committee got a festival sponsor idea when they led Hong Kong and Macau officials to the ice lantern show and earned a praise in 1983. On October 10, 1983, the officials approached Harbin Municipal Party Committee with a suggestion, then the suggestion was submitted to Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee, the suggestion was adopted after one years. Then the first Harbin Ice Festival held with grand ceremony at Zhaolin Park on January 5 in 1985 and was announced as an annual event lasting nearly two months until very late February. In 2001, Harbin Ice Festival was merged with Heilongjiang International Ski Festival and got its new formal name China Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. Now it is the largest ice and snow festival in the world, bringing in over $4 billion a year.

When and What's on

Traditionally, Harbin Ice Festival open around Dec 20 and last to the end of February. But its official opening ceremony (no closing ceremony for the festival) usually held on January 5th each year. And the time is usually considered as the official date of the formal beginning of the festival. During the festival, the city hold many interesting activities and events to celebrate the festival, such as parades, ice sculpture competitions, sonw sculpture competions, ice lantern shows, sliding, ice-sailing, sledging, ice hockey, ice football, speed skating, cross-field skiing and Alpine skiing competitions, winter fishing, winter swimming, ice and snow film art show, painting exhibition, calligraphy display, photo exhibition, folk song and dance performances, collective wedding on ice, trade talks, trade fairs and all kinds of national or international sports events etc.