Harbin Ice Festival Kicks Off in Northeastern China

The Harbin Ice Festival has begun in northeastern China, drawing millions of tourists to see the incredible ice sculptures.

The festival takes place every year between late December and mid-February, with master sculptors shaping huge blocks of ice for the exhibition. It opens to the public towards the end of December, but the official opening ceremony takes place during the first week of January, where the competition winners are also announced.

Despite taking place in the remote, frigid Chinese province of Heilongjiang, the event saw over 90 million visitors at the 2024-2025 festival, with up to 30,000 per day. However, these tourists are required to bring heavy gear– average temperatures in Harbin during the winter range between 14°F and -13°F (-10°C and -25°C).

Additionally, ice sculptures aren't the only attraction at the festival. Harbin also hosts an art expo for snow sculptures and a full ice lantern art fair, and more– almost everything is made of ice, including bars and restaurants. In fact, some of these restaurants even serve their food and drinks using ice plates and ice cups, and guests are seated on ice furniture as well.

The festival also offers winter swimming, where visitors can watch professionals swim through the freezing waters of the Songhua River. Visitors themselves are not allowed to take a dip because of the training required to handle such extreme temperatures, but they can observe others during morning hours when the events take place– usually between 10 am and 2 pm.

Harbin also has other attractions outside the festival, including skiing, sledding, and snowboarding, and some tourism companies in the city can bring visitors outside the city for Siberian Tiger and Arctic animal watching.

In addition to drawing tourists, the Harbin Ice Festival also hosts several competitions for sculptors, sparking international recognition and interest from creators around the world. These competitions typically take place at the center of the festival, known as the Harbin Ice-Snow World, and they are the only annually-held ice sculpture competitions in the world.

This year, the 37th edition of the contest drew 76 sculptors from 12 different countries, with a Russian team taking home the win. Coming from the isolated Siberian town of Amursk, the team won the competition with their sculpture, Alone in the Forest.

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Image credit to CNN