World
Each November, workers start hauling massive blocks of ice out of the frozen Songhua River. Using cranes, chainsaws, picks, lasers and LED lights, they use these blocks to construct a colorful fantasy land that becomes more astonishing each year - Harbin's "Ice and Snow World," an extravaganza of lit-up ice structures that attracts one million visitors yearly to this city in Northeast China each year.
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The buildings and figurines at the lit-up Ice and Snow World change each winter depending on the artists’ whims. The Roman Colosseum is the most popular attraction at the Chinese city's popular winter festival.
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The tallest structure at this year's Harbin ice festival was a replica of Iceland's Hallgrimskirkja Church. It included a slide for visitors to make their way down quickly. Many of the structures have sponsors, hence the logo for government-controlled ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the largest bank in the world based on assets and market valuation.
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The year 2014 is the Year of the Horse in China, and so it is marked by an ice sculpture at Harbin's ice festival. The sculptures require a delicate touch to carve.
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Not far away from Harbin's Ice and Snow World are the snow sculptures at Sun Island Park, where visitors can gawk at massive figurines that in daytime are slightly less frosty than at night.
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Dog-sled rides are one way to enjoy the sculptures at Sun Island Park during Harbin's ice and snow festival. About 492,000 square feet of snow is needed to make all the snow sculptures. In recent years, festival organizers have had to manufacture the fluffy stuff to deal with uneven and decreasing snowfalls, which some attribute to global climate change.
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To entertain tourists, the winter swim club in Harbin carves a pool out of the frozen ice of the Songhua River, and members of the club jump in to demonstrate the health benefits of swimming in near-freezing water.
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The Church of St. Sophia is the only surviving building of what was once many Russian Orthodox churches in Harbin, China. The city is known worldwide for its Russian architecture, the product of Russian control of the area during construction of the Trans-Manchurian Railroad to Vladivostok. Many of these buildings - particularly the Russian Orthodox churches - were destroyed during China’s Cultural Revolution.
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Harbin's ice festival starts on Jan. 5 each year and ends when the sculptures start to melt. The smile on this figure's face at Sun Island Park, photographed on Feb. 15, 2014, will probably not last for long.
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