[Music]
unlike most places in China the arrival
of winter signals the beginning of the
peak tourist season in the northern city
of Harbin every January visitors flock
to the city to experience the
international ice and snow festival one
of the most extraordinary winter events
on earth first launched in 1963 the
festival features hundreds of gigantic
ice and snow sculptures lining the banks
of the frozen Songhua River carved by up
to 15,000 sculptors and designed by
local engineering students the ice
structures range from mythical creatures
to historic monuments like the Forbidden
City sculptors take up to 10 million
cubic feet of ice from the Songhua River
and carve it into blocks using ice
cutting machines known as
wing sauce at night their creations are
lit to magical effect by multicolored
lasers and lanterns the festival covers
an area of 16 acres lasts for an entire
month and has turned a city lying on the
edge of Siberia into one of the world's
great winter playgrounds
[Music]