The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival

Today we visited the annual 36th Snow and Ice Festival which is the biggest in the world. It attracts 18 million visitors in the month that it runs, this year starting on the 5th Jan. It has 4 different sites which include Sun Island Snow Sculptures, Ice & Snow world, Songhua River Snow and Ice Valley and Zhaolin Park Ice Lantern Fair. First we visited the Sun island snow sculptures which features a park full of enormous snow sculptures which vary in size. They include castles, faces and animals and there is a variety of ice slides and fun things to do. 
We then visited Ice and Snow world (better visited when it goes dark). This consists of massive structures out of ice blocks that are taken from the frozen surface of the Songhua river and constructed into massive structures. When it gets dark they use lights to light them up. The effect is like Blackpool on Acid and is probably one of the most unreal experiences I have ever had. 
A day I will never, ever forget. 

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