Things to Do at Harbin’s Ice and Snow Festival
Harbin is a city located in the far north region of China, influenced by Chinese and Russian architectural designs. Due to this, the city has many honorific names including “Ice City“, “Pearl under the Neck of a Swan” or “The Oriental Moscow.” But the city’s main claim to fame is the enormously famous International Ice and Snow Festival.
This festival, which generally lasts two months to better manage crowds, is the largest ice and snow festival on the planet. Visitors come to this frozen city to experience massive ice citadels, ice-carved artworks, snow giants, interactive exhibits, locally famous food and multicolored-LED-lit-ice palaces.
The festival exhibits open from late December to late February. Visitors can find sculptures throughout the city, but the most impressive sculptures and features are located at the expo sites: Sun Island and Ice and Snow World. There is also a third, extremely popular option known as the Ice Lantern Festival held in Zhaolin Park.
There are many things to do at Harbin’s Snow and Ice Festival aside from seeing the sights. Visitors enjoy peddling bikes on ice skates, observing contest artworks, skating on the nearby frozen river and dining in the city of Harbin itself.
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Handling the Cold
The weather of Harbin is no joke. Winters here are long and freezing, with the average monthly temperature ranging from -25℃ (-13℉) to 3℃ (37.4℉). Wind chill makes walking around outdoors even hasher.
Make sure to bring cold-weather gear into the city. If you arrive and are underprepared to spend hours outside, visit the downtown Harbin area. Fully functional thermal attire is on sale here, though the prices are somewhat expensive.
The extreme cold tends to damage electronics over extended periods of exposure. Batteries drain faster and any moisture crystallization or condensation can be devastating. When not in use, be sure to keep your phone in direct contact with your skin. Body heat and warm clothing can prevent electronic damage.
Harbin Attire
Overall, cold weather gear is an absolute must. Visitors should have snow boots, hats, scarves, gloves and potentially a thermal face mask. Glasses are not convenient during winter in Harbin. They often fog up and the synthetic and metal parts can provide discomfort. Contact lenses or perscription ski-goggles usually work better. When experiencing different things to do at Harbin’s Ice and Snow Festival, getting what comfort you can is important.
When dressing in Harbin, wear either dark attire or extremely bright attire. In a winter wonderland, people wearing pale colors or white are hard to see. To avoid accidents with pedestrians, vehicles, skiers may cause collisions.
If you are using thermal packs, such as hand warmers, do not place them in direct contact with your skin, as this may cause burns.
Getting Around Harbin
Public Transportation in Harbin isn’t the best. Waiting outside is uncomfortable and most buses don’t visit the festival venues. However, there are special tourist buses which leave from Gonglu Daqiao (‘Highway Bridge’) between 17:00 and 22:30. There are also normal buses which can get visitors somewhat close to the festival.
Getting a taxi or rideshare such as Didi is a visitor’s best option. Always be sure to negotiate a price in advance, as Harbin taxis pay the driver directly and rarely use the meter.
The best way to enter Harbin is through the Harbin Taipin International Airport. This airport is a 45 minute drive from the city center and has direct flights to other Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and others. This airport does not offer international direct flights.
Visitors coming from Beijing can also use the Harbin-Beijing Bullet Train System. This ride departs Beijing to Harbin once a day, taking around seven to eight hours.
Other Advice
People visiting Harbin for the Snow and Ice Festival have two options: They can attempt to visit during the major holiday periods (Christmas Day, January 5th (formal opening date) and New Year) for maximum festivities. Or they can try to avoid crowds somewhat by purposefully planning around these dates.
International Ice and Snow Festival
This incredible event is a yearly festival where buildings are constructed from massive blocks of ice with LED strings frozen inside. These structures make up entire palaces and citadels for visitors to enjoy, all of which glow with refracted light at night.
Other parts of the festival utalize enormous snow sculptures. These sculptures are larger-than-houses and are part of various snow-construction competitions.
Other events around the festival include games, giant ice slides, traditional Asian-and-Russian winter food options, impressive firework displays, and more theme-specific snow and ice sculpture contests.
Main Venues
There are three sites for the festival.
Harbin Ice and Snow World
This venue is the most photographically well-known. Ice and Snow World is a massive yearly construction project where massive towers are made of blocks of ice. These blocks of ice are sealed together with more frozen water to create religious buildings, castles, towering walls, functional citadels and more.
The most interesting aspect of this venue is the LED light system. All buildings, sculptures and ice-creations are frozen with powerful, multicolored lights within. At night, this entirely-ice city glows through the darkness, refracting through ice and reflecting off snow.
The venue has well over 2,000 ice sculptures and buildings yearly. This venue is located on the North Bank of Songhua River.
Sun Island’s Harbin International Snow Sculpture Art Expo
Sun Island is the second location for the festival events. This location is surrounded by a large lake with an expansive plaza area. While this location is a popular relaxation space in the summer, it becomes magical during the winter.
During the winter, the island is commonly covered in a layer of pure white snow. Contestants build truly enormous snow sculptures which ring the entire plaza area, creating a de facto ice-sculpture town.
Chinese figures, monoliths, enormous animals, swirling gods, dragons, famous story figures and many more sculptures populate this area. Since Harbin’s Ice and Snow World is usually lit up at night, Sun Island tends to be more popular for day visitors. The area around the island caters to tourists with shops, snack stalls, Russian treats and Russian-themed performances. The island includes a “Russian Town” which can be entered for free, though some attractions require payment.
This venue is located on Sun Island in the Songhua River, No.3 Taiyang Avenue, Songbei District, Harbin, China.
Zhaolin Park Ice Lantern Show
This venue is another nighttime treat. Zhaolin Park is located within Harbin, making the most accessible venue.
This venue is generally much smaller than the other two, with low ice-buildings created to provide walkways and corridors throughout the park. However, the Zhaolin Lantern Show is the most beautifully lit.
Hundreds of Chinese lanterns, light sculptures, backlit ice blocks, smaller ice sculptures and creative lantern sculptures decorate the park. The lanterns come in various shapes, styles and colors with other added effects such as music and motion.
The Zhaolin Park Ice Lantern Show begins on January 5th each year and ends in late February.
Other Things to Do in Harbin
While Harbin’s winter festivals are the main draw, there are many things to do at Harbin’s Ice and Snow Festival in the city of Harbin itself.
Saint Sophia’s Cathedral
A huge Russian Orthodox Church in the center of the city which doubles as a museum. The Cathedral was built in 1907 as a symbol of the Chinese-Russian heritage of the city. The Cathedral now houses the Harbin Architectural Art Gallery.
Café Russia 1914
An excellent Russian café with unique, warm and fortifying foods. The traditional Russian soups are particularly good. The décor inside the café matches czar and aristocracy taste from the 1900s.
Zhongyang (Central) Walking Street
A central walking street built by Russians, this portion of the city is lined with shops, Russian architecture and restaurants. During the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, this street is often decorated with snow sculptures, some of them advertising local shops and brands. The stores in this area generally close around 10 PM.
Volga Manor
Located somewhat outside (southeast) of Harbin, this is a beautiful area full of outdoor pedestrian trails and water features. The centerpiece of the manor is a Russian style village in the countryside. It includes an extremely long ice slide. Entrance to the village is around 150 yuan and it takes around four hours to adequately explore.
Stalin Park
This park contains several beautiful sights while overlooking the Songhua River. When the river is frozen, there are ice skaters, dog sled rides and reindeer pen. Travelers can see different kinds of snow and ice sculptures as well as winter flowers inside Russian buildings.
Ice Palace Hot Pot
While Hot Pot is popular throughout China, the Ice Palace Hot Pot is specifically created for eating the traditional meal in an ice hut. Visitors bundle up against the cold and then enter specially constructed igloos. Inside, guest fight off the cold by munching on traditional hot pot.
Unit 731 Museum
A harrowing museum preserving the atrocities the Japanese committed during their invasion of mainland Asia, including medical experimentation war crimes. The museum has displays discussing Japanese actions in Russian, Chinese and Korean theaters.
China Snow Town (Shuangfeng Forest Farm or Zhongguo Xuexiang)
This is one of the best snow-and-paradise towns in China. The region is known for dense snowfalls, sometime exceeding three meters. The town itself is designed to remain beautiful under heavy storms, with wooden structures creating a unique series of “snow curtains.” The area is famous for panoramic views of the village and surrounding mountains, enormous ice slides, long-distance snow mobile trips, dog-drawn sleds and skiing. The town requires a 98 yuan fee to enter and is 280 kilometers north of Harbin. Private cars, tour groups, buses and trains can all reach the snow town.
Other Activities:
Visitors arriving in Harbin in the winter can also enjoy numerous other interesting activities. It is possible to go ice skating on the nearby river and lakes. Likewise, there are annual groups who do winter swims in freezing cold water.
Harbin is also known for their Russian-Northern-Chinese Fusion dishes:
- Stewed Chicken with Mushroom Soup
- Pork Bones Seasoned with Soy Sauce
- Rural-Flavored Disanxian and Pig’s Feat
- Russian Tossed Vegetable Dish
- Russian Dalieba (khleb)
- Hongchang Harbin Smoked Red Sausaged
- Guobaorou Sweet and Sour Pork
- Modern Ice Lollies
- Candied Haws
- Harbin Traditional Ice Cream
Another popular activity around Harbin includes visiting the various hot springs in the area. The most famous of these is Fengyexiaozhen Hot Spring Resort and Yingjie Hot Spring in Bin County, which both offer baths and dinners.
For those willing to travel outside Harbin, there are many resorts, villages and tourism companies which offer skiing, snowboards and snow mobile trips.
Dress warm and enjoy your trip.
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Read about other adventures and traveling the world on the Leftfade Trails blog pages. Firsthand accounts and stories describe journeys throughout Asia. Also enjoy firsthand stories regarding things to do at Harbin’s Ice and Snow Festival
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