One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is when my grandmother read me Andersen's fairy tale "the snow Queen". I didn't think back then that there actually were castles made of snow and ice somewhere in the world. And not some miniatures, but the most realistic, life-size ones!

Every year, the Chinese city of Harbin becomes the epicenter of winter magic, opening the doors for the International Snow and Sculpture Festival. This time, an entire ice city of 600 square meters was built for visitors and competitors: with palaces, skyscrapers, labyrinths, and even a train made of ice.

The city was built in just 15 days! It took about 220,000 cubic meters of snow and ice and more than 10,000 of workers and sculptors.

At night, the city is transformed: ice art objects are painted with all the colors of the rainbow using neon lighting.

Today, the Harbin festival is considered one of the largest event in the world. The event was first held in 1963, but it was only held for Chinese citizens. There was a big break in the history of the festival due to the political situation in the country, but in 1985 the competition resumed, and in 1999 it opened its doors to artists and guests from all over the world. So the festival is being held for the 36th time in 2020.

The location, of course, is also not chosen by chance: Harbin is located in one of the northernmost and coldest provinces of China, where the winter temperature can reach -40 °C. But in this case, severe weather conditions are more of a plus than a minus :)

Low temperatures do not stop the visitors from various winter activities organized on the territory of the ice city. Here they play winter sports, dive into the ice water and, of course, play weddings! This year, 40 marriages have already been registered at the festival, and there is still a month of work ahead :)

The festival holds a competition for ice and snow sculptures, participants from different countries of the world compete in five categories.

Snow sculptures amaze the imagination no less than ice creations:

Would you like to visit such a city of ice and snow? Put "Like", add a post to your favorites and be sure to share your impressions in the comments.

Thanks for your attention! :)