These pictures show an enormous frozen castle – built entirely from ice – created for the 30th Harbin Ice and Snow Festival.

The remarkable tower, which is at least 26 metres high and measures around 20 storeys, is one of the main attractions at the festival – which sees thousands of tourists flock to the city of Harbin, near the China and Russian border, every year.

According to event organisers, 10,000 people were employed to complete hundreds of ice and snow sculptures at the event – some areas of which are already open to the public.
Some measure more than 26 metres tall and 117 metres wide. Overall, the whole site is well over 600,000 sq metres.

All in all, about 180,000 square metres of ice and 150,000 square metres of snow will be used to complete all the works.

Come the New Year tourists will be able enjoy the artwork for themselves in addition to the Ice Lantern Garden Party, skiing, figure skating and theatre performances.

Visitors may also wish to visit the event’s Siberian Tiger Park or perhaps watch fishing, swimming and diving performances on the frozen river.
Others may wish to enjoy a tipple in the event’s ice bar.

Harbin’s festival is one of world’s four largest international ice festivals, along with Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada’s Quebec Winter Carnival, and Norway’s Ski Festival.

It starts annually on January 5 and lasts usually to the end of February, weather permitting.

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