Harbin Ice & Snow Amusement World
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In 1999, Harbin city governers planed an new project to welcome the new millennium 2000. Thus a shining ice and snow Disneyland world of the fairy tales came out as one of city icons in Harbin.
Harbin Ice and Snow Amusement World is the top site to host various interesting ice and snow activities, especially the large scale ice snow sculpture exhibition every year. In 2013, the 500,000 square-meter fairy world is made of huge ice block and snow up to 200,000 cubic meters. And the area and ice and snow consumption are growing from year to year. It consists of three areas:
East Scenic Area is the paradise of children. There provides many facilities and places for children to enjoy ice and snow activities such as skifields, slides, children's playground, Christmas square, labyrinth and the big inflatable buildings. In addition, here you can do some shopping, enjoy the local yummy food at the restaurants, or rent ski items.
Central Scenic Area is heart of the Ice and Snow World made up of some ice mountains, Time Square, Century Clock, giant ice colonnades, ice fountains, multi-colored ice screens and so on. visitors can enjoy various wonderful shows, sleigh rides, skating, ice disco, or participate in night masquerade during annual opening is designated to be held.
West Scenic Area has comprehensive attractions covering the Future World, High Antiquity, Northeast China Folk-Custom Garden, Oroqen Folk-Custom Garden, Continental Europe Garden, Adventure Paradise and etc and offers many big fantastic ice duplicates of Chinese and foreign buildings, climb ice hills, drive ice karts and snowmobiles, taste delicious Chinese ethnic cuisines and authentic Russian food for enjoyment.
Reviews from some trip advisors:
Millions of tourists, including some big persons such as foreign affair high-rank officals, ambassadors have been attracted to visited the event for the view and gave high praise. See what they said:
- On arriving at the ice festival we were very impressed with the huge entrance. The ice sculptures are amazing, impressive, beautiful! even better than we were expecting. There's lots of fun to be had around the park though.. Some cool slides and little tricycles you can ride on the ice. Definitely worth a visit...
- Planning you itinerary well in advance to maximise enjoyment and minimize cold (-25 to -29C while we were there). The opening night of the Ice festival was amazing...don't miss the fun. Make sure you allow time to eat in one of the glass restaurants too.
Travel Tips:
1) Buy your ticket in advance to skip the long queue when arriving at the festival.
2) Before you go, please wear more layers of proper clothes and warn shoes and to keep you from being freeze. Very cold, in fact i wore 4 layers of clothes but not enough though i also put some hot pad on my feet and hand. Bring along some hot beverages with you just in case you need to have something hot but it's okay if you don't have you can just stop by in one of the cafes inside. It was close to windstill when we were there, but nonetheless minus 22°C (-7F).
There is a rather large food tent with various stalls. Contrary to what someone wrote about hot drinks, our orange drink we got was hot. It didn't say it on the sign, and we didn't expect it to be hot, but it was.
3) Ensure your camera can handle such temperatures. If you have the possibility to bring an extra battery this could be a good idea. Yes - you are allowed to bring cameras and tripods etc with you.
The Festival itself was very nice and we got the just before sunset. The ice sculptures were nicely kitschy lighted and although I had a tripod with me I never didn't use it. I would definitely come back, but next time I'd like to see it in the making as I think this is art and it would be nice to see it take shape.
Location
North bank of Songhua River, Songbei District, Harbin 150000, China
Opening Time and Hours
About December 20 to late February next year
9:30 – 21:00
