Attend Harbin Ice Sculpture Festival

“We arrived at the festival shortly before sunset so we could appreciate the glass-like appearance of the buildings before they were illuminated. Music played everywhere as we wandered streets of packed snow. Many of the structures resembled the architecture of temples in various parts of Asia. The walls of ice, shooting straight up, were massive, and I couldn’t resist touching them. They seemed so impossible I half expected to learn they were made of plastic. As night fell, brightly colored lights slowly came on inside the ice, making the park festive in a peculiar neon way.”

“Harbin is cold — so cold that on our first night at the festival, the condensate from my younger son’s breath formed ice crystals on the brim of his hat and his eyelashes froze. My phone said it was minus 12 degrees Fahrenheit. We were dressed for the extreme temperatures in layers of snow gear, but when I took off my thick insulated gloves (simple knit gloves are inadequate) to take pictures and quickly put them back on, my fingers hurt for 20 minutes. I had to keep my phone close to my body so the warmth would keep my battery from dying prematurely.”