Having an ice time
From sculptors to swimmers, locals carve out their own niche winter pastimes


Built at a scale of 1 to 6, the sculpture used 350 metric tons of ice, and measured 72 meters long, 15 meters wide and stood 13 meters high.
"Different from traditional ice sculptures, it was built on a barge base with a steel frame, with its external shape crafted with ice blocks," said Chen Rongxin, designer of the sculpture.
During the construction process, the team modified its plans several times based on the ice's load-bearing capacity and the ship's weight to ensure the safety, accuracy and aesthetics of the sculpture.
At Harbin Engineering University, more than 1,600 teachers and students completed three massive snow drawings on campus, including one of China's third aircraft carrier, the CNS Fujian, and the mascots of the 9th Asian Winter Games, Binbin and Nini.
Students mapped out the drawings using high-precision positioning from the Beidou Navigation Satellite System.
Viewed from above, Binbin and Nini are depicted enjoying the snowy landscape as the latter soars into the air on a snowboard, as if saying hello to visitors from around the world.
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