Shoot the Breeze With the Cooler Crew - Peoplesforum Edition

Harbin Snow & Ice Festival of 2003

I got this in my email from my Aunt today. I thought people here might appreciate it, but I will have to break it out amongst several posts because of it's size...

The temperature in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both Fahrenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. So ! what does one do here every winter? Hold an outdoor festival, of course! Rather than suffer the cold, the residents of Harbin celebrate it, with an annual festival of snow and ice sculptures and competitions. This is the amazing sculpture made of snow greeting visitors to the snow festival in 2003.

so.. I'm checking out trailers on e-bay, when the phone rings, and stepping over to reach the phone, I slip on a dowel-like thing the Boy was playing with. The dowel causes me to lose my balance, and I reach out to catch my fall, when my hand comes in speedy contact with a daredevil lure tacked to the wall, impaling me. Because the phone is still ringing, I answer it whilst trying to yank my hand from the wall in a "Carrie's Mother" fashion. The barb was imbedded deeply into the muscle. I called for Dan, who was playing Texas Hold'em upstairs- got no response, so I used the metal part of a clipboard to remove the thak, freeing my hand. No2w- the lure was still in there, so I went upstairs to ask Dan if he thought I should go to urgent care. He glanced at my "dilemma" and said "dammit- I'm winning a tournament here!"
Suddenly- he realised what he had just seen in my hand, and took out his side cutters, and his dremel for good measure. Stuck a rag in my mouth, cut the lure, and yanked the hook part out of my hand. Then he proceeded to throw up, and ask me to make him a cocktail. Dan hardly EVER drinks. (that's my job)
Now who says I don't know how to spend a Thursday evening???
I think I may need a drink soon....
Oh- Hello, Happy Birthday, and Congratulations- So sorry to hear that, and I feel the same way sometimes.

Snow and ice sculpture in Harbin dates back to Manchu times, but the first organized show was held in 1963, and the annual festival itself only started in 1985. Since then, the festival has grown into a massive event, bringing in over a million tourists from all over the world every winter. The sculptures have become more elaborate and artistic over time; this bear and cub are just one small part of a fifty-meter-wide mural sculpture.

Most of the sculptures appearing at the snow festival are competitive entries. Each team starts with a cube of packed snow that appears to measure about three meters on a side, and then starts carving away. Teams come in from all over the world - Russia, Japan, Canada, France, even South Africa. Part of the fun is guessing the nationality of the team, based on their sculpture's artistic style, before reading the signs. I believe this was a Russian entry.

The sun begins to set behind the magnificent entryway sculpture. The snow festival is actually separate from the ice festival; both take place on the wide open spaces of Sun Island Park north of Harbin's river, Songhua Jiang. Harbin is situated south of the river, so it's a chilly ride over to the sites. It seems even chillier when crossing the bridge over the very wide and very frozen Songhua Jiang.

I was surprised to discover this sculpture of a Native American sitting in the frozen northeast of China; sure enough, I read on the sign that a Canadian team sculpted this entry. Chinese teams had many sculptures at the festival as well, off in another section, but a vast majority didn't measure up to these amazing works.

Even the sunsets in Harbin look cold. Though only mid-afternoon, the sun was setting over the snow festival and the temperature was falling even further below freezing. But the coming darkness was actually good news, because it meant that the ice festival was about to begin.

The ice festival, a few miles away from the snow festival, is anything but dull and colorless. Crowds flocking to the entrance are greeted by dance music booming in the distance, as if at an outdoor pop concert. And bright neon colors shine everywhere, buried within huge blocks of ice forming structures as high as thirty meters, such as this huge structure beyond the entryway. You can just make out people standing atop its blue and red stairway.

A view from atop that structure, looking back on a Russian-styled building and a mock Great Wall, both constructed out of ice. Making it to the top of this structure is an accomplishment in itself - imagine walking up a stairway of solid ice for two floors with no handrails. The yellow block wall on the right and the balconywork on the lower left are all ice, with no internal support structure - just lights.

The Great Wall doubles as a long ice slide; just sit and go. You can pick up some serious speed and wipe out spectacularly at the bottom if you're wearing a slick coat, but you won't go anywhere if you're wearing corduroy pants.

An overview of the ice festival from atop the Great Wall of ice. It's like a Disney theme park, with multiple attractions and food hawkers and kids running around and people lined up for bathrooms. The only differences are that the temperature is about a hundred degrees colder than the typical Disney park, and all the structures are made out of ice rather than plastic - and slipping and falling here doesn't result in tremendous lawsuits.

One of the popular activities at the festival is climbing a wall of solid ice. Amazingly, I didn't see a single person fall, and most everyone made it to the top. All the ice comes from Songhua Jiang, the nearby river, which provides a limitless supply; huge chainsaws are required to cut through the ice, which can be meters thick.

The snow festival is mostly a display of art; the ice festival is mostly a display of architecture. Nevertheless, a number of sculptures can be found at the ice festival, such as this life-sized horse. Agile youngsters with good balance climb atop the horses to have their pictures taken. Notice the layers of ice in the horse; blocks of ice are fused together to form larger blocks so that sculptures - or huge buildings - can be made.

An entire ship constructed of ice, with passengers onboard. Though it might not be seaworthy, the ship would certainly float - after all, it's made of ice. Hundreds of years ago during the Manchu days of ice lantern art, the sculptures were lit only by candles.

A Thai temple of ice, complete with hallways and rooms inside. Long ago, Disney made a Circle-Vision 360 film called "Wonders of China" - still showing at the China pavilion in the World Showcase at EPCOT - which includes a brief section on Harbin's ice festival. In the movie, the sculptures are quite low-key, little more than blinking light bulbs inside small globes and ice carvings. Things have changed a bit since

Super nice pics Allison- BUT! Do they have a bluish lucite coin hidden in their vicinity? ...One worth $10,000.00? Where one needs to gather and noodle clues to possibly find it? MMMMMM....Noodles-*drool*

WoW! was your aunt visiting there or does she live there? If she doesnt live there...why did she choose there? instead of somewhere like...hmmm say...the BAHAMAS!!??

thanks for sharing them.

 

Hand hurts

Man! I missed a cooljoe!

I'm sorry AW- I did not wish to diminish those pics. I'm just getting a bit antsy. I wonder if certain things such as greed and liability prevents potential artists here from creating such masterpieces?
Those sculptures would certainly be beholden by millions in St. Paul.
Does anyone know when the Cathedral bells are supposed to ring again since their repair?

I'm thinking I need
A: a smaller pic of Moana,
B: a new pic altogether.
Your votes count- Just do not cast your electoral vote for John Ewards

thats a bummer about your hand KT! too bad there isn't any SNOW outside for you to stick your hand in. :(   

Damn, ninja... sucks about your hand.... hopefully you aint in too much pain n stuff.

Does anyone know when the Cathedral bells are supposed to ring again since their repair?

They plan to test them tomorrow (Friday) and they are to ring for the first time for Christmas Eve mass.

Big...

 Joe !!

My aunt didn't actually take those pictures. She spends all day in her apartment using her oxygen machine. She's not about to head off to China. This was really just a forwarded email. I'm not sure who originally wrote it. But I figured they were definitely pictures worth sharing.

I posted that link in here about a year ago too. My wife found it somewhere. Awesome stuff!

Thanks AW, cool pics. I liked the one where people were climbing that wall/incline of ice. Now there's a winter carnival event :)

KT, my advice to you is: drink heavily.

I posted that link in here about a year ago too. My wife found it somewhere. Awesome stuff!

Yes I remember seeing that site last year.

Thanks for posting those spectacular pictures, Allison!

Hey KT - You had this guy hanging on your wall?  I can see why it hurt when he stuck to you.  Although he really isn't THAT sharp.

LOL

I hate being at work on a friday night!!!

Don't worry Kitch, there's no parties going on right now.  You know why?  Because it's not a party unless you're there anyway. 

You and me both I am almost happy I will be out of work this time next week.
This job is starting to suck, I will be happy to find a full time job again.
An artist representative wants to see my portfolio after the new year that looks promising.

at least i get to leave at 8pm...but I gotta work at 8am...grrr

at least i get to leave at 8pm

Same here.  Wooo Hoo!

Thanx for your thoughts& prayers about my hand.
The odd thing is- I suspected it to hurt something awful today, but there's no pain.
I'm trying to decorate my tree tonight. I have a little one this year, (due to theGiantHeroin sofa...) I tested each light strand on the floor- but when I wound the tree, the green strand stayed dark. It's a little tree, green wire, green bulbs, ahh- what the heck?
Green- call me..., or my tree will look bogus this year.
(heh- of course the green strand is in between the red and gold strands, and they WORK JUST FINE!)
Oh Hell- I'm going to listen to the Messiah on the radio

Nice to hear your painless...our prayers worked?

KT sorry about your hand but I can defiantely relate to the pain thing.  Last weekend at OTS's company party I was resting and my feet slipped out from under me.  By Tuesday I could not stand the pain anymore so off to the dr to x-ray my bum.  I was in shock when he told me I dislocated my tailbone.....Pain is much better now but only because of the amount of vicodin I am taking:

I love the pictures AW,  I can't wait for the next ice palace here.  I am from South Florida and have only lived here for 4 years.  I can not believe that I am excited about the winter time, the winter carnival and all the fun stuff related to the cold.  I never thought I would say I like the winter time in Minnesota (shhhhh dont tell OTS).

 

Um you already did Pay me=)

I'm kinda missing the impatient chicken... The dancing banana confuses me.
...But then again- I'm easily confused.

The dancing banana confuses me.

It's a banana. That dances.

pay me....

I'm so sorry to hear about your pain in the ass.

 

(somebody had to say it)

I'm just wondering?

Why can't the PP work with the Parks and Rec. and allow the parks to be open 24hrs day during the hunt?

at least make it 100% legal....

I wonder how many people don't go out in parks after 10pm because they figure the parks are closed and nobody is allowed to look.

thanks for the clarity AW. But it did not help. A banana that dances?
Even in the light of day I find I am still confused. Perhaps it is a perpetual thing for me...
I still miss the impatient chicken- it was less confusing.

Shh- Kitch! Don't spoil it for us ninja hunters!