The 36th annual Harbin Ice Festival has begun in northern China, bringing with it perhaps the largest collection of ice sculptures and snowscapes ever seen by human eyes. Crafted from 220,000 cubic metres of ice drawn entirely from the frozen Songhua River, the exhibits are expected to draw more than 200 million tourists, both domestic and foreign.
Here are a few visual highlights from the frosty festivities, from elaborate ice palaces to exhilarating snow slides…
The festival opened with a fireworks display.
The sculptures comfortably dwarf ordinary people…
…and you can wander among them…
…or find a place to perch.
Colours range from deepest red…
…to light blues and yellows…
…to a kaleidoscopic collage.
Some are sculpted straight from snow…
…others hewn from giant blocks of ice.
There’s everything from conical towers…
…to domed palaces…
…and gothic turrets.
Some are clearly just for looking at…
…while others are a little more interactive.
And in case you want to know just how cold you are…
…there’s even a thermometer.