The first time I heared about Harbin and the biggest Ice Festival in the world was actualy on the german news in the beginning of January. The pictures of it facinated me right away and i instandly thought I just have to go to Harbin and see it myself. Two weeks later I booked flights for the following weekend.
The river is frozen solid and you can actually walk on it! 
I arrived at the Ice world right before sunset, wich is perfect because you get to see the it at both, day and night time. I had seen pictures of it before but being surounded by these huge Ice buildings and feeling the negative 20° is such an amazing experience. It felt a little like being in Arendelle, they even plaid the song Let it go!
After sunset the Ice buildings light up in many colors. There is a european quater where they had an ice copy of the coloseum. The lines on the right of the last picture are slides. It looked like a lot of fun but I didn’t want to wait in line since I could barely feel my feet anymore, it was sooo cold.
Saint Sophia Cathedral 
The second day I decided to explore the city Center of Harbin. Its not like other chinese citys I have been to, but much more Russian/European. That makes sence, since the province Heilongjiang which Harbin is the capital of, is on the north west adjected to Russia. Did you know that Harbin is actually even further north than Vladivostok?
Another night another Ice World. It wasnts as crowded as the first and more popular one and at first I thought it was the ticket price not worth, since the first Sculptures where not iluminated and it was getting dark. But eventually, after a walk through an empty park of, compared to the first park dull snow sculptures, I found myself in front of a snow version of the Temple of heaven from Beijing. I haven’t seen the original yet, but I cant imagine it more beautiful then it’s epic snow copy.
At the end of the Park was a more crowded area with a restaurant to warm up and a few but huge Ice Sculptures. My favourite one was an ice castle which was not only full of colorful lights but had a projection of details like windows and other decoration on it. In front of the Palace was a frozen lake that you can ride Ice Bikes on. Instead of wheels they have skids like Ice skates.
