The longest ice slide in the world,
it's 512.6 meters (0.32 miles) long.
We also have the tallest ice building in this park.
It’s 36.8 meters (121 feet) tall.
China’s northernmost cities are known
for their breathtaking giant iced buildings
that welcome visitors in winter.
Welcome to Ice Country.
In this series,
we’ll see what winter looks like
in some of the coldest parts of China.
We are in Changchun,
a city in northeastern China.
The city starts building its ice parks in November.
We need about 300 machines and 5,000 people.
And it takes 15 days to build this ice park.
But 60 years ago,
these enormous ice buildings weren’t quite
the architectural wonders they are today.
They were known instead as ice lanterns.
Ice lanterns already existed in ancient China’s palaces.
At first they just froze the ice and put lights inside.
Harbin hosted its first ice festival in 1963.
The sculptures were small
since they relied on freezing up tap water.
It was hard to prepare large blocks of ice this way.
The year after, they realized they could chisel giant slabs of ice
straight from the frozen river nearby.
Since then, the size of the sculptures have grown each year.
I‘m in charge of this section that shows Chinese architecture.
The buildings here feature traditional Chinese elements,
like the dougong (bucket arch).
Building an ice building
requires you to fit different shapes of ice together.
We need a lot of people to build it
and make different shapes of ice blocks.
First, we chisel ice from the frozen river
and bring it to the construction site.
The designers decide where to assemble the ice buildings.
Then the builders will set up an ice base.
Artists will sculpt some ice structures
and carve intricate details onto them before
before these blocks are hoisted onto the top of buildings.
Since there will be lights installed inside the buildings,
we have light designers who will work together
with ice builders to install the lights.
Then it’s time to polish each building.
The hardest part is when we get warm weather.
The ideal temperature is -10°C to -5°C (14°F - 23°F).
We use water to glue the ice together.
If the temperature isn’t low enough,
the water can’t freeze and glue the ice together.
So when it’s a warm day, we might stop construction.
China’s ice parks open their doors
from mid-November onwards.
Workers start collecting ice around the same time.
And to make sure there’s always enough ice,
some parks store leftover ice
and use them the following year.
We made a 40,000 cubic meters (10.6 gallons) ice cellar.
In winter, we put ice in it and seal it, and then cover it with soil.
Even if it’s hot outside in summer,
the temperature inside this ice cellar can still be negative.
Because it’s 40,000 cubic meters big,
it’s like a fridge on its own.
The outer layer of ice will melt a little,
but the ice inside stays intact.
I went to the ice park in Longqingxia in Beijing
when I was young.
By then, ice parks had been in existence for about 10 years.
That was my first time seeing ice buildings
and I was mesmerized.
I studied architecture,
but I didn’t know that ice could be used to make
such beautiful architecture.
I was shocked by how glassy
and beautiful the ice buildings were.
That’s how my interest in them grew.
Up next,
we see how workers collect these huge blocks of ice.
Stay tuned!