중국의 겨울 얼음 조각 예술

 

 

중국의 겨울 얼음 조각 예술

Frozen palace: This is an enormous 26-metre ice castle built for the Harbin Ice and Snow

Festival out of ice from the nearby Songhua River

 

Looks like hard work: Employees stab iron pikes into the frozen Songhua River

as they extract giant ice cubes to make sculptures for the festival

 

An arduous task: Workers pull a giant ice cube out of the river and drag

it towards the main festival site. Each ice cube weighs about 551lb

 

One worker is then pictured putting the blocks in place, before pouring

water on them to freeze them together. Another can then be seen polishing

the work to give it an amazing, crystal-like finish.

 

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According to event organisers, 10,000 people were employed to complete

hundreds of ice and snow sculptures at the event - some areas of which

are already open to the public.

Stake out: A worker stabs a pike made from iron into the frozen water.

10,000 were employed to complete the structures and 180,000 sq metres

of ice will be used

 

Building blocks: one worker polishes an ice sculpture - made from thousands

of blocks frozen together, pictured - ahead of the start of festivities in January

 

Technique: To secure the structure, a worker pours water onto ice cubes

to make them stick to one another before leveling them off and polishing.

 

Some of the pieces measure more than 26 metres tall and 117 metres wide.

Overall, the whole site is well over 600,000 sq metres. All in all, about

180,000 sq metres of ice and 150,000 sq metres of snow will be used to

complete all the works.

In the evening, some of the structures are lit up in a beautiful light-show display.

 

Quite the spectacle: Early visitors have a look around a smaller ice castle

at the ice festival - which officially opens at the beginning of next year

 

Not quite finished: Workers and scaffolding next to one of the newly-built

ice sculptures illuminated by hundreds of coloured lights

 

 

Bright: Visitors gather next to an ice gate sculpture in one of the open areas

of the festival last night. Weather depending, it will stay open until February

next year

 

Some of these pictures show the spectacle - with numerous palaces, towers and

monuments in the festival lit up in every colour of the rainbow.

In the New Year, tourists can enjoy the artwork for themselves in addition

to the Ice Lantern Garden Party, skiing, figure skating and theatre performances.

 

Visitors may also wish to visit the event's Siberian Tiger Park or perhaps

watch fishing, swimming and diving performances on the frozen river.

Others may wish to enjoy a tipple in the event's ice bar.

 

How unusual: A giant carving of a childhood cartoon character, complete

with ear muffs, looms over some early visitors to the festival

 

Dwarfed: Skilled craftsmen carve a 117-metre-long snow sculpture, featuring

a horse and a woman, in one area of the park last week

Attention to detail: Workers carve a large snow sculpture that features

a rather cross looking dinosaur for the festival.

Some visitors to the area have already been enjoying horse-drawn carriage

rides across the frozen river.

Harbin's festival is one of world's four largest international ice

festivals, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec

Winter Carnival, and Norway's Ski Festival.

 

It officially starts on January 5 and usually lasts to the end of

February, weather permitting.

 

Chip off the old block: one enormous horse-head structure at the event -

which in total covers 600,000 sq metres festival

 

Whittling away: The expo displays many artworks as well as offering

fishing and diving displays as well as an ice bar and food stalls

from around the world.