Experience the enchanting Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in China through stunning drone footage. Fly over magnificent ice palaces, illuminated sculptures, and vibrant winter displays that transform ...

The 41st Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival opened on Sunday, attracting more than 800,000 visitors on its first day. The annual event is held in China's northeastern province of Heilongjiang.

The main festival covers 1 square kilometer (.6 square miles) of the city, with the sculptures using 13,000 cubic meters (460,000 cubic feet) of ice blocks cut mainly from the adjacent Songhua River.

Ice and snow sculptures carved by nearly 10,000 artists in the city of Harbin have melted during a sudden warm spell, forcing the earliest closure of the main venue at China's biggest winter festival.

Visitors eat foods as a woman poses for a photo with the ice structures at the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China’s Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) ...

The ice sculpture festival is a major tourist draw for the former industrial center that still boasts of its proximity to Russia with Tsarist-era architecture found nowhere else in China.