The Harbin Ice Festival
The Harbin Ice Festival, established in 1985, is held annually from January 5 and lasts for over one month. Harbin is the capital city of Heilongjiang Province and this is China's original and greatest ice artwork festival, attracting hundreds of thousands of local people and visitors from all over the world.
The city's location in northeast China accounts for its arctic climate which provides abundant natural ice and snow. Subsequently, the 'Ice City' of Harbin is recognized as the cradle of ice and snow art in China and is famous for its exquisite and artistic ice and snow sculptures. The fabulous Ice Lantern Festival was the forerunner of the current festival and is still the best loved part of the overall event in the opinion of all who come to Harbin each year.
The Derivation of the Ice Lantern
The first Ice lanterns were a winter-time tradition in northeast China. During the Qing Dynasty（1644 - 1911), the local peasants and fishermen often made and used ice lanterns as jack-lights during the winter months. At that time these were made simply by pouring water into a bucket that was then put out in the open to freeze. It was then gently warmed before the water froze completely so that the bucket-shaped ice could be pulled out. A hole was chiseled in the top and the water remaining inside poured out creating a hollow vessel. A candle was then placed inside resulting in a windproof lantern that gained great popularity in the region around Harbin.
From then on, people made ice lanterns and put them outside their houses or gave them to children to play with during some of the traditional festivals. Thus the ice lantern began its long history of development. With novel changes and immense advancement in techniques, today we can marvel at the various delicate and artistic ice lanterns on display.
Today's Ice Lantern
Nowadays, ice lantern in broad sense refers to a series of plastic arts using ice and snow as raw material combining ice artworks with colored lights and splendid music. The specific patterns of ice lantern include ice and snow sculptures, ice flowers, ice architectures and so on.
Harbin Ice Festival provides the visitors each year a whole new world of ice and snow. The best collections of ice artworks are exhibited in three main places: the Sun Island Park, Harbin Ice and Snow World, and Zhaolin Park.
The Sun Island Park is the site of the Snow Sculpture Exposition displaying a wonderful snow world. It has the world's largest indoor ice and snow art museum and it opens to the public from November every year.
Harbin Ice and Snow World came into being in 1999 and is one of the world's largest ice architecture parks. The inspiration for the ice and snow sculptures there usually is derived from traditional Chinese fairy tales or world famous architectures such as the Great Wall, the Egyptian Pyramids, etc.
Zhaolin Park is a 'must see' during the Harbin Ice Festival because it has a traditional program that shows the most excellent ice lanterns. With water, lights and the natural ice from the Songhua River running through Harbin as the material, the ice lanterns are made by freezing water, piling up ice or snow, then carving, enchasing, decorating, etc. The ice lantern park touring activities have been held here annually since 1963 and is said to be one of the most wonderful 35 tourist attractions in China. There are numerous pieces of ice artworks in the park arranged in groups according to different themes depicting Chinese classic masterworks, European folktales and customs and so on. A great variety of objects such as buildings, gardens, flowers, waterfalls, European-styled churches, lions, tigers, dragons are carved from ice. In the daytime, the ice sculptures are magnificent and verisimilitude. Moreover, with the interspersion of the sparkling colored lights embedded in the sculptures at night, the park becomes a glorious and amazing ice world.
Today, Harbin Ice Festival is not only an exposition of ice and snow art, but also an annual cultural event for international exchange. Every year, there are many ice sculpture experts, artists and fans from America, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Russia, China, etc. gathering in Harbin to participate ice sculpting competitions and to communicate with each other in the ice and snow world. Also, Harbin ice lanterns have been exhibited in most of China's main cities as well as in many countries in Asia, Europe, North America, Africa and Oceania. For more than 40 years, Harbin's natural resource of ice and snow has been fully explored to provide joy and fun for visitors to the city. Now during the festival, many sporting competitions are also popular including ice-skating, sledding and so on. Weddings, parties and other entertainments are now very much a feature of this ice world, adding their own contribution to the celebrations of this great festival of art, culture, sports and tourism.
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Brief Introduction To Heilongjiang Province
Geological location: Heilongjiang Province, abbreviated as ¡°Hei¡± in Chinese, is located in the Northeast of China, at the highest latitudes and the northernmost end of the country. It neighbors Russia across the Heilongjiang and Wusuli rivers running in its north and east respectively; in the west, it the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region; and to its south is Jilin Province. It covers an area of 454,000 square km, accounting for 4.7 percent of the nation¡¯s total. Under its jurisdiction are 13 prefectures and cities, 66 counties (cities), 1,211 townships (towns) and 14,488 villages.
Climate: It has a continental monsoon climate, the kind between the temperate and frigid zones, with annual temperatures of ¨C4 ¡ãC to 4 ¡ãC. The temperature difference between its north and south parts is 8 ¡ãC. Its warm summer with plentiful rainfall and long-time sunlight is good for crops, its annual sun radiation power reaching 100¡ª120 Cal per square centimeter. Most of the areas are windy in spring, and its southwestern part, in particular, is rich in wind energy source.
Provincial capital: Harbin
Population: 36.89 millions (March 2001)
Tourism resources: Heilongjiang has abundant characteristic tourism resources. Its spots for ice and snow activities are the best in China. Snow-skiing period in the province lasts 120¡ª140 days in a year. In mountainous area, snow on the ground can be 100¡ª300 cm deep and it¡¯s of good quality. Among its smooth mountain slopes, 100 has been chosen as spots good for building large-scale skiing grounds. Its beautiful landscape, forests and grasslands, wetlands and rivers and lakes provide rich resources for developing eco-tourism. Its unique history has also left it a rich cultural legacy and colorful customs. The Bohai State during the Tang Dynasty, the ruins of the Jin-dynasty capital in Huining and the ruins of Longquan Mansion are among those of historical interest. The crossing-border tours to Russia launched on the border rivers of Heilong and Wusuli attract tourists from all over the country. Such cities as Harbin, Daqing and Yichun attract travelers with their distinctive style of northern frontier cities.
Ethnicity: The province is a habitation for many ethnic groups. According to the fourth national census taken in 1990, there are 47 ethnic groups living in the province, of which, Han people made up 94.3 percent of the province¡¯s total; people of 42 ethnic minorities, 2 millions, accounting for 5.7 percent of the total. Major ethnic minorities include Manchu, Hui, Mongolian, Korean and Daur, Sibo, Hezhe, Oroqen, Ewenki and Kirgiz, who are distributed across the province. Dorbod Mongolian Autonomous County is the only area in the province with ethnic autonomous administration. There are 51 cities and counties where the ethnic minority population has reached 10,000 or more. There are 68 ethnic minority townships and 920 ethnic minority villages. The average population density of the province is 81.7 person per square kilometer.
Agriculture: Heilongjiang, one of the country's most important commodity grain production bases, occupies first place both in the volume of commodity grains and storage. The province's total grain output was 31.045 million tons in 1997, hitting a record high. Its farming, forestry, livestock and fishery industries contributed 50 billion yuan (US$6 billion)of value-added last year. The province's annual output and export of soy beans rank first in the country. Its exports of soy beans make up two thirds of the country's total. The province's output of flax, beet and flue-cured tobacco also stand in the front row in the country. The province's amount of milch cows, output of milk and dairy products possess first place in the country.
Industry: Heilongjiang.At present, the province's coal mining, timber felling and transport, petroleum recovering, machinery and chemical, food, textile and light industries have possessed fairly large-scale production capacities. The province mainly produces crude oil, timber, large generating facilities, freight trains, metallurgical equipment, tools and measuring tools, mini and light motor vehicles and heavy building machines, whose output ranks first in the country and 90 per cent of the total products are transferred to other parts of the country.
The flood control monument
Ladies and gentlemen:
Here we are at the flood control monument. This monument was built with a European style in conformity with the architecture along the central avenue. It was erected in 1958 in memory of the people of harbin fighting the flood in 1957.at the time, the water level reached 120.3meters above sea level, which was 4meters higher than the ground level of the section of the city. The people’s life and property were endangered. However, under the leadership of the government and the party, harbin people worked along the bank day and night for over a month, in the end, thd flood gave way and the city was safe and sound. In contrast, in 1932 when the Japanese invaded the city, we had a high water level of 119.72 meters.2.58meters lower than that in 1957,thd authorities did little to build the bank. And the water overflowed and the city was flooded. Tens of thousands of people were drowned and many more died in its aftermath. As you can see at the basement of the monument, we have two fountain ponds, representing two different water levels.
What’s more, in 1998 we experienced another high water level of 120.89 meters, over half meter higher than that in 1958.it is believed that such a flood may occur only once in 150 years .at this time not only did the people of harbin fight against the flood, but army troops from other province joined the fight. The water level surpassed the bank over one meter; the people and the army demonstrated their united power in the fight against the enemy of the natural disaster. A temporary dyke was built on top of this bank. The flood finally retreated.
The monument measures 22.5ers in height. On top, heroes manifest the people of harbin under the leadership of the communist party of china always invincible. At the back ,20 columns forming a semi-circle embody harbin people in the 20th century creating miracles.
In 1990,a music fountain was added here, creating a new leisure spot in the evening .in 1996,500 pigeons were released here making this square more peaceful, in 1998,the square was enlarged so that people could enjoy a better atmosphere here.
The monument square is also a place for holding political, cultural and sports activities, the 24th harbin summer concert held an opening ceremony here. We laid a red carpet 1380 meters long, making it the longest one in the world, which was recorded by the shanghai Guinness book .
The flood control monument is a symbol of harbin .it manifests that the heroic hardworking and intelligent harbin people will strive forward for a more prosperous future.
Now ladies and gentlemen, you can walk round here and take some pictures, I am sure you will all enjoy yourselves here.
Also known as "Ice City", Harbin is most famous in China for its winter scenery and bitterly cold temperatures that accompany the freezing environment.
The average winter temperature here is as low as minus 20 to minus 30 degrees C. Make sure you come prepared with plenty of winter woolies!
The Harbinese however, really know how to exploit and make the most out of their situation and have a long tradition of using ice and snow in an amazingly creative and varied number of ways. Frozen lakes are used as natural skating grounds, ground snow is used instead of a refrigerator and even the frozen Songhua lake was once used as a highway.
Ice sculptures first came into being as a traditional Chinese art form during the early Qing dynasty some 350 years ago. Over time, various types and shapes of sculpture have been designed and developed, all enhancing the status of this somewhat unusual art form so that today the annual Ice Festival is televised nationwide, attracting millions of viewers.
Making the ice sculpture is a relatively straight forward process, especially in these freezing temperatures. When the idea first came into being, a colored lantern was placed inside a carved ice block, to make a lantern-like structure. Various techniques have been applied and developed over the years, making the lantern into a more intricate and interesting shape. Designs today include ice flowers, ice buildings (from the Taj Mahal to the Eiffel Tower), ice carvings and life-size figures.
Today, the annual Ice Lantern Festival is held in Harbin from the 5th of January to the end of February. During this time, thousands of ice lanterns,carvings and buildings are exhibited and paraded on huge floats through the city. This is a great experience and even the most cynical visitor cannot fail to be impressed by the sheer size and scale of work that goes into producing many of the sculptures.
Little Moscow
Harbin Local Features -- Little MoscowA history of hardship and warfare, colonialism and co-operation means that Harbin has developed a very distinctive character.
For centuries, this northernmost city has had a distinctive and influential relationship with its Russian neighbor so that locals have for many years given the city the nickname of "Little Moscow".
Harbin today, has developed from being a small and insignificant fishing village into a large city, know across the nation for its unique Russian characteristics.
In 1896, the Russians began construction of a rail line from Vladivostok, through Harbin, and on to Dalian. The influx of migrant Russian workers during this time and again in 1917 when thousands of White Russian refugees fled the Bolsheviks, not only expanded the population but also introduced many special characteristics to the city.
The Russian presence continued after 1932 when the Japanese invaded as part of their attack on Manchuria. In 1945 the Russians returned for one year before returning the city to the Chinese in 1945. During the Cultural Revolution too, the city saw years of fractional fighting which destroyed many of the original Russian buildings which have today largely been replaced with skyscrapers.
There are however, still traces of Russia scattered around the city in exquisite buildings such as the Church of Saint Sofia and the streets around Zhongyan Avenue, which have retained many of their characteristic features. Perhaps even more obvious instances of the Russian influence here is in the cuisine (the Harbinese apparently inherited their love for ice cream from the Russians) and, the fact that the residents of Harbin are reportedly the biggest drinkers in China!
Harbin is one of the sources of ice and snow culture in the world. Geographically, it is located in Northeast China under the direct influence of the cold winter wind from Siberia. The average temperature in summer is 21.2 degrees Celsius, -16.8 degrees Celsius in winter. It can be as cold as - 38.1 degrees Celsius in winter.
The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has been held since 1985. It starts from January 5th and lasts one month. There are ice lantern park touring activities held in many parks in the city. Winter activities in the festival include Yabuli Alpine Skiing, winter-swimming in Songhua River, and the ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden. Snow carving and ice and snow recreations are world famous.
The "Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival" is one of the world's four largest ice and snow festivals, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway's Ski Festival.
Every November, the city of Harbin sends teams of ice artisans to the United States to promote their unique artform. It takes more than 100 artisans to create ICE!, the annual display of indoor Christmas-themed ice carvings in Nashville, Tennessee; Kissimmee, Florida; and Grapevine, Texas.
The third Winter Asian Games took place in Harbin in 1996. The city of Harbin bid for hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Alpine skiing events would have taken place in the Yabuli ski resort. In the frame of this campaign to assert its role on the world scene, Harbin will also be the host city of the 2009 Winter Universiade. Harbin plans to spend US$ 1.5 billion in construction and renovation of its sport infrastructure for this Universiade.
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