Ice Sculptures Galore

Lights and ice sculptures from the 30th Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China.

I love the Harbin Ice Show. It's just such a curious thing that serves absolutely no purpose, must take thousands and thousands of man-hours to put together, and is gloriously decadent. In the heart of China!

The best thing is the themes behind the ice sculptures. In American, we'd inevitably see the Lincolns, Washingtons, Kings, the usual. I wouldn't recognize any of the faces they carved if you showed me an actual person! Even the animals are carved in a distinctive Chinese way. Just a nice way to realize how parochial we all are and tied to our own mythologies. Wish I could go there someday - who knows?

The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival originated from local Harbiner traditional ice lantern show garden party in winter since 1963. It was halted for a number of years during the Cultural Revolution but has resumed and declared an annual event at Zhaolin Park on January 5, 1985.

The sculptures are up now. Summer will come, it always does, but it's fun to enjoy this explosion of art and light!

After you view these, you might be in the mood to compare them to a few from 2012-2013 here.

An Olympic-sized pool made of ice

Yes, that entire swimming pool is made out of snow and ice

A man viewing the sculptures while using his cellphone

Whos is this? I have no idea, but I love it

A Chinese T-Rex dinosaur!

2019