Living in China through the last half of the 2000s – with two small children, no less – was a time of extremes, yet the everyday challenges were ceaselessly eclipsed by the beauty. The flavour. The astonishing moments. And one of those astonishing moments was a picture postcard of extreme living.
Every January, the city of Harbin, tucked up near Siberian Russia, hosts a deep-freeze confection to knock your winter socks off. The Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival is, like all things in China, a truly spectacular event. The scale, majesty and skill is out of this world.
In January 2006, my husband and I left our preschool-aged kids in Beijing with my sister, packed our snow boots and flew to Harbin. We both love winter, but nothing could have prepped us for this kind of cold. Night-time lows reached -38C during our stay, though day temperatures did skyrocket to a positively balmy -27C.
These kinds of temps are kind of challenging. How did we cope? Chinese whisky. Also, four pairs of wool socks inside oversized snow boots, two sets of thermal leggings under jeans, three thermal tops, two wool knits and a triple-thick snow coat. Extremities needed particular attention – soft gloves under leather gloves under snow gloves, three beanies (one with earflaps), earmuffs and a pashmina around the face, which ensnared our breath as it froze into teensy icy beads.
It was Michelin man turned robot; the bending of elbows or knees an impossibility.
See also: 10 most beautiful places to visit in China
See also: The world’s coolest ice festival
Covering more than 750,000 sqm, there are two main experiences at the festival – one for day and one for night. We robot-walked our way around both venues in stunned stupor, unable to believe what we saw through the slit in our head gear.
The daytime snow show was a photographer’s wonderland – a Santa’s workshop of intricately carved creations, ranging from giggling 3m-high babies to life-size (literally) palaces. But the truest eye-pop of all was the team of middle-aged “polar bears” who shuffled from a makeshift shack, dove into a rectangular hole in the Songhua River, swam to the end, climbed out and tiptoed their way back to their hut. All this while workers scraped the sides of the hole with spades, unsticking the water as it froze before our very eyes.
The night event was an astonishing city of sculptures made from hefty ice blocks carved from the Songhua River and lit with disco lights. The 2006 theme was the friendship between China and Russia and featured stunning life-sized buildings and monuments from both countries, including the Forbidden City and Red Square.
At this event, my husband and I challenged each other to take off one glove. The pain was brutal – ironically, like fire on the skin. In fact, at night-time, it’s not recommended to stay outside more than 30 minutes. Heated tents dot the festival grounds for defrosting nose-tips and fingers before heading back into the flame-throwing air to gasp some more at the monumental, backlit wonder.
These kinds of masterful ice creations don’t come easily, especially in such conditions. Hundreds of people work up to 18 hours a day, hand-carving massive ice chunks from the frozen Songhua River – “mining” building blocks to create true feats in engineering.
These craftspeople sandwich blocks together with water, which instantly freezes and forms a bond. Then, using chainsaws, forks and chisels, they uncover everything from child-sized igloos to magical pagodas and a 31m ice tower (crafted in 2018).
Even the local parks get in on the action, crafting comparatively miniature ice displays. With the swish of a chainsaw, sculptors masterfully reveal dragons and sunken boats and ladies wearing ballgowns.
When I began my picture-book series about a world-travelling penguin, Plume, my thoughts often passed to Harbin. As I wrote, visions of a giant bookcase carved into an Antarctic glacier came to mind. This bookshelf, and its contents, are what inspires Plume to travel and experience the beauty, flavour and astonishing moments we can experience in places like Harbin.
Travel, to me, is all about extremes. It’s about pushing ourselves outside well-worn comfort zones, trying something new, hearing new sounds, tasting new flavours, experiencing foreign cultures, and sitting in quiet awe as we open our hearts and minds to the wonder before us.
Facing great extremes is not really about a frostbitten nose or an adrenaline rush – it’s about enrichment. Experiencing something that will live with us lifelong, and continue to enchant and uplift. And my icy little travelling penguin could not agree more.
Book two in the Plume series, Plume: Global Nibbler (Hardie Grant Explore, $17.99), is out now. The third title in the series, Plume: Festival Seeker ($26.99) is released on October 5.
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