Jaw-dropping.

The Harbin ice sculptures are the largest ice festival on earth, by miles. And pictures can’t begin to capture the scale, the blaze of colour.

You wander, snow crunching under your boots, past gigantic ice palaces, lit up in every colour of the rainbow, and then some.

You gawp through colonnades of ice, past ice pagodas, past sculptures glistening in the neon light, to ice temples.

You climb ice steps and race down sinuous whirls of ice slides, one as high as a four-storey building.

You amble across ice bridges, pause on a crenellated ice fortress to look out over an entire fairytale city built of ice, palaces and castles stretching out in all directions.

You stop at a food cart, for candied hawthorn, crisp sugar crunching against your teeth, the sour fruit smooth and granular within.

You gawp at illuminated horse and carriages, glittering tinsel trees, New Year’s fireworks against the city skyline…

You catch your breath and warm your toes in a little, glazed cafe. With the ice thermometer reading 26 below, it’s rather more appealing than the ice bar.

A few carved sculptures. Ooh! More ice slides!

And, oh my lord, who’s that on the giant TV screen on that ice palace?

It’s Shaquille O’Neal marketing Harbin beer, at 23 years old the oldest beer brand in the country.

And, yes, this catapult is Angry Birds themed. And, no, they probably didn’t ask.

Amble past the Angry Birds, and there’s a winter wonderland of fun, even better than the Songhua River: an entire ski slope, with a T-bar lift, ice skates, ice bikes, ice “hovercraft”, snowmobiles and ATVs.

And, if you’re a boy, you jump on an ice bike, pedal for dear life and slew across the hard, scarred ice.

It’s wonderful. Truly, truly wonderful.

By daylight, the sculptures have a serene, almost austere magic.

By night, they’re awe-inspiring.

You’ve come with high expectations. And, truly, they’re more than met.

Looking for more travel inspiration? Check out Lijiang, still the prettiest town we’ve ever visited, Byblos in Lebanon or my favourite pictures of Nepal.

About the Harbin Ice Sculptures
The Harbin Snow & Ice Festival officially opens on 5 January and run until Chinese New Year — in practice, it generally opens in late December and runs until at least the end of February. These pictures are from Harbin Ice & Snow World, the best of the exhibition spaces.

There are direct flights to Harbin from most major Chinese cities, and non-stop international flights from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Russia. From within China, there are bullet trains to Dalian and weekend-friendly overnight trains to and from Beijing — book the Beijing trains well, well ahead.

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