Harbin's Ice-Lantern Festival (Part 1 of 2)

On February 13th, I went to Harbin for the weekend to see the annual "Ice-Lantern Festival". The train trip takes 10 hours, so I took an overnight train there and back. I will probably talk about Chinese train travel in a later page.

Harbin City, in the very north of China is a City of 12 million people. It has a deserved reputation for being cold. At this time of the year the temperature regularly drops to -30°C, but has been know to drop to -50°C. Harbin has capitalised on its cold reputation to host a Ice-Lantern Festival. This month long celebration of ice attracts visitors from all over China and from abroad. Apparently, the tradition of ice-lanterns stems from the days when fishermen would use a hollowed-out piece of ice to protect their candles from the wind. Today, the Ice-Lanterns are huge sculptures with tubes of fluorescent light embedded in the ice. There is a main exhibition of Ice & Snow sculptures and Lanterns in one of the cities parks. But there are many sculptures dotted around the city.

Harbin has a strong Russian influence and acts as the Chinese gateway to Eastern Russia. This influence is very much apparent on Zhongyang st, where most of the building are of Russian design, build by Russian merchants at the turn of the century. The City also boasts an army of people with bamboo brooms, keeping the pedestrian streets free of snow. Outside of the Russian "quarter", the city is a pretty anonymous Chinese city. The city centre is ugly but fairly modern.

Before coming to chilly Harbin, I was advised on suitable attire. Thick thermal underwear are a necessity, I also had several layer of fleece garments, top & bottom. Plus windproof jacket & overtrousers. With all of this I felt a bit like "Forty-coats", but I was pretty snug. The only problem was taking photo's, my hand would be bitterly cold even after a few seconds after removing my gloves. And it was not only, my hands that suffered. The camera batteries would stop working if the camera was left out for a minute or two. The camera had to be kept under a few layers of clothing.

The buildings here have a curious kind of double glazing. A window would have two window frames with a gap of about 8 inches between.

The city is divided by a large river, which of course was frozen. The frozen river is used as kind of fair-ground. A huge slide has been build of ice. For just 10 cent, I was able to slide down to the river, at a terrifying speed, on a piece of plastic. Other activities were, horse drawn sledge across the river, dog sleigh, kite-hire (seriously), camel rides(!!!) and karting-on-ice, which isn't as much fun as it sounds, the 'karts' are surprisingly 'grippy'.

Above left; Big slide down to the river. Above right, camel thinking "I've died and gone to hell?"

Dog sleigh rides and kite hire are very popular with the Chinese Tourists.

The main ice sculptures are on display in a park in the city centre. During the day, entry to the park is about €1, but the price triples in the evening, when it's dark and the ice is illuminated from the inside. During the day the park is virtually empty of people, it iss quiet, the only sound is the fresh snow crunching underfoot, the sculptures are glistening in the sun, and a gentle fall of snow adds to the magical atmosphere. It's the sheer size of the sculptures that impresses. And there must be hundreds of sculptures ranging from abstract work about a meter across to a 30 meter high space rocket. The centre of the park hosts the Ice-Sculpture competition, where teams from all over the world carve elaborate and artistic creations from a 2 meter cube of frozen water. Although, I couldn't find an Irish submission! However, there was an entry from that well know home of ice-culture, the central African state of Burundi!

It's at night,when the show really starts. The snack vendors wheel their trolleys in, the huge fake neon fireworks with faux firework noise, start up. Somebody puts Chinese pop music on the PA. The crowds start to pour in. And the illuminations are switched on!! I've never seen so much neon in my life! Every piece of ice is threaded with red, green or blue neon. During the half hour around dusk, the place turns from a serene, empty, glistening world of ice, to a loud, crowded world of lights. The shift in perspective is amazing. The illuminated ice carries it's own fascination and there is the buzz of festival about the place. Everyone is taking photos and eating food on sticks. I had to revisit most of the park as the sculptures look completely different illuminated at night.

This rocket & solar system themed exhibit, celebrates China's recent manned space launch

Go to Harbin Page Part 2->