The temperature in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both farenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. So what does one do here every winter? Hold an outdoor festival, of course! Rather than suffer the cold, the residents of Harbin celebrate it, with an annual festival of snow and ice sculptures and competitions. The festival officially runs from January 5 through February 15, but often opens a week early and runs into March, since it's usually still cold enough.

Ice sculptures and ice lanterns are a traditional form of art in the northeastern part of China. It is said that a long, long time ago, people went fishing on the Songhua River in winter. They dug a hole in the ice, and put a hook in and they could catch a lot of fish as fish rushed to the hole to get fresh air. Thus fishing continued into the night.