Ice Festival at Longqing Gorge

Ice sculptures = yet another Olympics advertisement opportunity!

China is just warming up now, but Northern China is really friggin' cold during the winter. Perfect conditions for holding an ice festival or two!! Right before I left for Xinjiang in February, my excellent roommate and I went to the Longqing Gorge Ice Festival just outside of Beijing. It wasn't as fancy as the big festival they have in Harbin , but it was pretty fun all the same, even if it was (a necessarily!) freezing cold. The theme this year was - unsurprisingly - the 2008 Olympics.

The principal hazard of attending ice sculpture festivals.


Olympic rings and...two rats arm wrestling? (It's the Year of the Rat!)

Whole cities of ice! Whoop whoop.

Icey, brightly lit grandeur.

China: the only place where you can have a church at an ice festival but not for realz. Joke, joke! There are churches in China. Uh, quality unknown. Let's just leave that topic as a "No further comment" for now, eh? :)


More ice cathedral...

The Fuwa ice sculptures kinda looked like popsicles. Yum.

Mythical creatures in ice!

Creepy clown.

Giant snow head. I can't quite make out the name at the base of the snow head, but my best guess is that I'm kissing Stalin.

'Nuff ice and snow. Pretending to play soccer (sorry, football) with Fuwa.

Olympics theme. Yes, yes...we get it.

I think they mean "Please Do Not Enter", but this literal translation is cute, too. Just look at that doggy with the snorkel...and the friendly "Hi". Love it.