World's biggest winter festival

The 32nd annual Harbin Internatiolan Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival

Jan.5 - Feb.5

The annual festival in the capital of the northeastern province of Heilongjiang is expected to draw more than one million visitors to admire castles and cathedrals sculpted out of ice and lit up at night in ethereal colours. This year’s display is the largest in the festival’s decades-long history, filling a park the size of more than 100 sports fields and using a record amount of ice and snow, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The centrepiece is a 15-story tower of ice, thought to be the world’s tallest. The festival’s schedule includes ice and snow sculpture contests, as well as performances and musical events.