I have been a bit slack not mentioning the ice sculptures and the ice festival prior to this because it really is a highlight to spending winter in Harbin. The festival gets a lot of attention in the travel books and is proclaimed to be a huge tourist attraction. The reason I have been slack about it is because there are ice sculptures absolutely everywhere in Harbin and as it’s so cold I really don’t want to take my hands out of my pockets let along take my gloves off so I can take a picture when the process will probably delay my entrance into a nice warm shopping centre or restaurant. I love going into those underground shopping centres as there are usually several doors to get through and then to ensure none of the cold is clinging on, you have to fight your way through these thick curtain made out of quilt material it always reminds me of entering the ‘haunted house’ at the Royal Show – so much fun. Any way back to the much ignored Ice Festival, so I have mentioned that they are really common place, some of them you can play on, sit on and I think there is even one that serves drinks, I hurried past that one and didn’t investigate. The actual Ice World which is where this photos are taken you pay to see them and I thought the night was unique in two ways, first have a look at the photo’s it really is amazing, I doubt I will ever get a chance to visit something that spectacular again the other unique aspect was the ‘cold’, I know I have complained a bit about this but that night was out of this world. I was wearing practically everything I owned, everything was layered then an extra layer for good measure and ‘frost bite’ was still playing on my mind. A Valentine day night to be remembered, we supposedly had a romantic sleigh ride but seriously I wasn’t even sure who was in the huge bundle of clothes sitting next to me.
