Ice and Snow World, Harbin, China (Lin Yang)

For any interesting and different way to spend New Year’s this winter, try Harbin, China, where below-freezing temperatures don’t stop thousands of visitors from traveling to one of the nature’s most spectacular ice and snow festivals. Every year on January 5, the International Snow and Ice Festival kicks off with a chilling celebration amongst a grandiose display of ice art. The arctic meteorological character of Harbin yields perfect conditions for the annual festival, not to mention making it an early forerunner to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Ice and Snow World is a subcategory of the event, a place where the most extraordinary ice sculptures are displayed. Visitors are met by enormous castles violent above them—some of which reach more than 80 feet into the frigid winter air. LED lights are installed to create a spectacular lightshow inside the multi-tiered structures. Sports enthusiasts will bask in the snow-filled options for outdoor adventure—alpine skiing at the Yabuli Ski Resort, snowsledding, winter swimming in the Songhua River flowing down from the Changbai Mountains, and testing your own creativity levels with much smaller-scale ice and snow carvings.

Travel Tip: Such bitterly cold temperatures can wreck havoc on your camera. Protect it by keeping it under your coat when not in use. In the event that condensation does occur, take all removable parts off and let them dry out. Keeping the camera outside with condensation in it could cause the camera to freeze.

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