China brings out the big guns of winter spirit every year in the northern city of Harbin. For 33 years the International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has attracted artists from all over the region to build behemoth architectural feats and intricate snow and ice sculptures that remain solid for months in the climate near Russia’s southern border.
In the past few years, the show at night has become even more stunning than during the day, as projections and LED lights turn mythical-seeming ice castles into pure magic. The central area of the festival is the Harbin Ice and Snow World, which sprawls over 750,000 square meters and is comprised of 180,000 cubic meters of ice cut by local farmers from the nearby Songhua River according to CNN. Construction on the ice park began in December, and the festival officially opened January 5. A beer festival and a concert series also attract visitors from around the world to the surreal testament to modern engineering.
Videos by VICE
Below, we’ve gathered the most stunning images of the festival that Instagram has to offer.
Learn more about the International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival here. Follow The Creators Project’s Instagram page for more amazing images.
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