Harbin.

By Mark Andrews

Metropolis Magazine (Tokyo) Issue 767. 05/12/2008

A guide to China’s Sapporo-shaming Snow and Ice Festival

On a warm day, the mercury might hit -15°C. Welcome to Harbin in winter during its peak tourist season. Each January and February, this city in northeastern China hosts the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, an event which dwarfs the Sapporo Snow Festival in scale.

Harbin locals have a history of making ice sculptures that dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when residents would make lanterns by filling buckets with water. This tradition led to the establishment of the Harbin Ice Lantern Festival in 1963. The event was forced to take a hiatus during the tumult of the Cultural Revolution, but it re-emerged in 1985 in a bid to increase tourism.

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Mark Andrews has written about everything from Japanese houses to heli hikes on New Zealand glaciers, test drives of Chinese cars to bar and restaurant reviews. He currently specialises in travel articles and reviews of Chinese cars plus articles about the Chinese auto industry.

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