The Ice City

I'm leaving for China in a week to conduct another photo tour there. One of the incredible highlights of this itinerary is the Snow and Ice Festival in Harbin. I just checked the temperature there -- it's now minus 12 degrees Fahrenheit which is minus 24 Celsius). This is 20 degrees warmer than the last time I was there! Every year in Harbin, about 10,000 workers build an entire city out of ice. It's truly breathtaking. To get this overview of the ice city, I climbed up three flights of ice stairs in an ice building holding on to an ice railing for support (there was indoor/outdoor material on the steps for safety). Cylindrical cores are drilled into the blocks of ice into which colored fluorescent tubes are placed to illuminate the entire scene nightly. The camera settings were .5 seconds, f/22, and 200 ISO, and I used a 24-105mm lens for the shot.