St Sophia Harbin Ice Sculpture

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Barbara
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Re: St Sophia Harbin Ice Sculpture

Post by Barbara »

From the 2017 Ice Festival. One gets a hint of old Russian monastery towers in those behind the large central dome, though they would not have sported tiny domes, let alone red ones ! :

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Barbara
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Re: St Sophia Harbin Ice Sculpture

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The 2018 Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival opened - today !

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St Sophia again figures in the most breathtaking pictures. This is one of 2019's ice sculptures of the Cathedral. Photo taken at the opening ceremony today, Jan. 5, 2019.

The accuweather report below identified the admission price to the Harbin Ice Festival as quite high, a fact well concealed in the Chinese tourist literature ! :

Despite being one of China's coldest cities with average January temperatures of 9 F, millions of visitors flock to Harbin every year to visit the world-famous Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. Boasting 2,019 snowmen, the world's largest ice sculpture, incredible light shows and 750,000 square meters of venue space, 10 to 15 million people travel to the city every January to see the sculptures...

Among the festival events is the annual swim in the Songhua River. Some swimmers train for months to prepare their bodies for the cold water, as the popular event draws hundreds of participants. With temperatures occasionally reaching 31 F degrees below zero, workers have to break newly formed ice before each event...

The festival was first held in Harbin in 1963 and became immensely popular in 2001 when the event combined with the International Ski Festival. It has become a local source of pride in recent years, as cultural celebrations with traditional songs and dances are performed for visitors. The hefty price of entry also boosts the local Harbin economy and is a significant source of the city's annual income."

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather- ... l/70007072

If one clicks on this link, a short panorama view can be seen above the article which brings the festival alive. Prominent in the video is St Sophia Cathedral. However, after the clip ends, it moves on to other subjects with surprising speed, so be ready to click it off.

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Barbara
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Re: St Sophia Harbin Ice Sculpture

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Glad the Euphrosynos Cafe is bac in operation, as I missed the years in between reporting on the spectacular Harbin Ice Festival !

It's not too late for this year. Apparently, everything built will melt after the end of Feb from the title of the video below.
The clip is not great, I warn readers. But it's better than the only other one made in 2024.< That video is narrated by a guy whose vocabulary seems limited to "mental". The scenes at the Ice Festival are "mental", etc. I thought mental meant a little bit strange, unbalanced. But in that video, the word is employed to connote the wonder at the ice sculptures felt by the narrator.

So...we'll skip that one in favor of the Harbin Ice Festival video tour by a German tourist who calls himself "KenAbroad" - [though I don't recall that Ken or Kenneth was a particularly Teutonic name]

The middle part gets dull while KenAbroad chats with locals. But the rest is all right.

Be ready, though, to hear 20 times how chilly his hands feel !

China Built The World's Largest Ice City (Melts In 1 Month)

Last edited by Barbara on Sun 11 February 2024 11:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Suaidan
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Re: St Sophia Harbin Ice Sculpture

Post by Suaidan »

Never saw this thread!

Fr Joseph Suaidan (Suaiden, same guy)

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