2009 Winter Festivals Around the World
The Harbin Ice Festivalby Jean Knill If you can get some time off next January, pack up plenty of warm clothing layers and fly from Shanghai Pudong to Harbin in the far north. January 5th is the start of its month-long, annual Ice Festival, when the city opens the doors of its fantastic Ice and Snow World, and holds the Ice Lantern Exhibition in Zhaolin Park. It is the culmination of several months of work, designing and making works of art with ice and snow. While you will see the ice sculpture exhibits in Zhaolin Park, the festival's snow sculpture exhibition is held in Sun Island Park, on the northern banks of the Songhua River that flows through the town. In recent years, Harbin has opened its snow and ice sculpting competitions to the international art world, and the festival is patronized by a cosmopolitan mix of artists and tourists from many countries. All the sculptures in snow and ice are amazing pieces of work, with intricate and delicate designs often as part of colossal themes like episodes in history, classic works and folk tales. All of this is possible because of the arctic climate of this capital of Heilongjiang Province, close to the Russian border. But you'd be wise not to put off a visit for too many years in case climate changes take effect. This has been a concern in the last couple of years when temperatures have been a little higher than normal from time to time. It meant that officials were worried about the ice structures melting before the end of the month long festival. It hasn't happened yet, though. It would take some doing anyway, as the structures are all life-size or even larger. One of the snow sculptures in 2007 was over 800 feet long and in places over 90 feet high. In Zhaolin Park and the Ice and Snow World you'll find life size replicas of actual buildings that you can enter and move through. The tradition of putting lights in ice as lanterns in this area goes back at least to the 17th century. Local residents froze water in buckets and then warmed it just enough to remove the ice. They then made a hole in the middle with a chisel, large and deep enough to hold a candle and keep it alight even if it was windy. Their ice lanterns would light up the streets and areas around their homes, and could be carried around as well. From these humble beginnings the ice festival evolved, and these practical uses have turned into the art of magical cities of light that have to be seen to be believed. The festival exhibits in the Ice and Snow World are seen to best effect after the daylight has gone. If you are among them at twilight, you will have the pleasure of watching the lights gradually come on. Out of the gloom, one structure will suddenly blaze out in glorious Technicolor, while its neighbors remain as dark silhouettes until it is their turn. Later, you might stand high on a replica of the Great Wall to watch a dizzying firework display competing with the lighted panorama below. Apart from wandering around and gazing spellbound at these creations, there are other activities you can take part in, or just watch. Recent years have seen people enjoying horse drawn carriage rides around the area. Sun Island Park also has dog sledding available. Magnificent ice slides from fantasy castles send you zooming down to ground level and ice mazes will have you scratching your head to find your way out. Seated skiing across the ice, on chairs fixed onto metal bars is another popular pastime. If you find yourself feeling too chilled, pop into one of the ice restaurants that will fix you up with a warming repast or hot drink. During the daytime, look out for more conventional skating, ice hockey, ice sailing or tobogganing. You can even go on safari in Harbin, because it is the home of the Siberian Tiger Park, important for the conservation of this endangered species. Visitors are driven around it in a tour bus from which they can see the activities of the various groups of tigers that live there. Harbin is well served with hotels. Out of 106, the top three on the trip advisor website are the Modern, The Shangri-La and the Holiday Inn Centre. Reading through the latest reviews, you might think the Sofitel Wanda a better choice than the Holiday Inn. One reviewer on the site recommends eating in the Ice Palace, built for the winter in the shape of an igloo. Another suggests that the Shang Palace restaurant in the Shangri-La is reasonably priced and serves an excellent meal. So Harbin is definitely worth a visit of at least a few days at this time of year. If you want to have a longer vacation, why not have a two-center break and take in some skiing as well. The Yabuli Ski resort, which was developed to host the third Asian Winter Games in 1996, is less than two hour's drive away. Weird Festivals in FinlandFrom the annual wife-carrying contest to the international sauna championship, weird events are popular in Finland. Some of the most popular crazy contests in Finland this summer are the Wife-Carrying World Championship in Sonkajärvi, the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship in Juva and the World Sauna Championship in Heinola. The Wife-Carrying World ChampionshipFinlands annual Wife-Carrying World Championship has been running since 1992 and attracts contestants from around the world. Participating husbands must carry their wives along a 250-metre track and the track includes both dry obstacles and water obstacles. The rules are simple: the fastest couple wins. The 2010 contest is held in Sonkajärvi in eastern Finland from the 2nd to the 3rd of July. The Mobile Phone Throwing World ChampionshipThe land of Nokia has also come up with an international mobile phone throwing competition. This popular contest has been running since 2000 and the next championship is held on August 21st 2010 in Juva, in eastern Finland. There are four categories in the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship: Original, Freestyle, Junior and Team. In the Original category, the contestant throws a mobile phone over his or her shoulder and the length of the throw determines the winner. In the Freestyle category contestants get points for creativity and style as well. The World Sauna ChampionshipThe annual World Sauna Championship in Heinola, southern Finland, attracts dozens of contestants from several different countries around the world. Not surprisingly, the winner is usually from Finland, a country that is home to just 5 million people but has 1.6 million saunas. The competitors sit in a sauna that is heated to 110 Celsius (230 Fahrenheit). Half a litre of water is thrown on the hot stove every 30 seconds to increase temperature and humidity in the sauna. The last contestant to stay in the sauna (and to walk out afterwards without outside help) is the winner. This years contest is held in Heinola from the 5th to the 8th of August in 2010. Fun Times in New OrleansEven if you have never been there, mention New Orleans and it conjures up images of jazz clubs, nightlife on Bourbon Street, the famous French Quarter, and riverboats cruising the Mississippi. New Orleans is one of America's most historic and fascinating cities and if you have visited the city before and have seen the usual highlights, there are some offbeat and unusual things you can try on your next trip. Although Hurricane Katrina badly damaged the city in 2005, the French Quarter was left mostly unscathed and today it is business as usual in many of the city's tourist areas. New Orleans is a city easily explored on foot. There are many guided walking tours available which show you a different side of the familiar areas of the city; and also offer an unusual angle on the city's fascinating history. Particularly popular are walks of the Garden District, where your guide will usually point out the mansion that once belonged to the novelist Anne Rice; and haunted French Quarter walks. New Orleans is supposedly one of the most haunted cities in the country and has more than its fair share of spooky stories. Several popular hotels claim to be haunted, including the Omni Royal Orleans, the Provincial and the Lafitte Guest House. Bourbon Street - named after the Spanish family Borbon, and not the drink - is one of the most famous streets in the world, and is well known for its bars, music clubs and crowds in the evening. This is one of the few places in the country where normal drinking laws don't apply – bars can serve alcohol any time of night. One of the most unusual drinking places is the Old Absinthe Bar, where a plaque outside lists some of its more famous customers – Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman and Sarah Bernhardt. For a more unusual perspective, take a walk along Bourbon Street in the early morning; you may see the street being hosed down to remove the excesses of the night before. A visit to one of the city's famous cemeteries is a must. The cemeteries are unique to the city in that most of the graves are above ground to prevent flooding. The voodoo queen Marie Laveau is buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 and her grave has become something of a pilgrimage site. If you don't feel like walking, a popular way to experience the landscape around the city is by taking one of the several ‘swamp tours' on offer. These tours take you through the bayous that surround the city, offering a chance to see the vegetation and wildlife unique to the area; some include a visit to an alligator hunter's cabin. The French Quarter, which is the most popular area of the city, is full of surprises if you take the time to look beyond the many bars and jazz clubs. One of the architectural specialties of the city is the hidden courtyards. Creole custom was to have their home oriented to the rear; consequently if you step through many doorways in the area, you will find yourself in a delightful enclosed courtyard. Two of the most beautiful courtyards are hidden away behind the Old Town Praline shop in Royal Street; and the ‘Inn of two Sisters' restaurant in Royal Street. Another distinct feature of the area are the narrow town houses, known as ‘shotgun houses' so-called because you could fire a shotgun down the long hallway and straight through the length of the house. Look for other decorative and architectural details too; an iron gate on Dumaine Street has motifs on it, known as ‘devil's pitchforks' which were designed to keep evil spirits away. The fence outside the Cornstalk Hotel on Royal Street resembles a field of corn and was cast in 1859. The Royal Street pharmacy has a perfectly preserved soda fountain that is not in use, but the shop owners could not bear to part with it. As befitting such an eclectic city, New Orleans has an interesting selection of museums – many of them are small and off the tourist trail. Try browsing the exhibits at the Smith and Sons Hardware Museum, the Museum of the American Cocktail and the National World War II Museum; the latter is located in the city due to the whim of an eminent historian. One of the smallest museums is on the second floor of Arnaud's Restaurant and displays a collection of Mardi Gras costumes from the early 20th century. The most fascinating small museum is surely the Voodoo Museum in the French Quarter, which consists of two small rooms filled with voodoo artifacts. Make sure you watch the informative film which is included with your entry ticket, and gives a good overview of a practice still considered mysterious and secret to most people. Most visitors to New Orleans stay on the north bank of the Mississippi and don't venture across the river to the neighborhood known as Algiers. Just getting across the river is something of an adventure on the little ferry that has been making the trip regularly since 1827. Algiers is a largely residential neighborhood, with lovely 19th century houses, some small restaurants and shops. The most unusual attraction here is Mardi Gras World, which offers a behind the scenes look at the year-round construction of those famous Mardi Gras parade floats and the chance to try on some outrageous costumes. New Orleans is definitely a city for grown-ups. But if you are visiting with children, one of the most unusual attractions is the park called Storyland. It was constructed in the 1950's by one of the men responsible for Mardi gras float construction and features huge models of characters from children's books. Here, there is no such thing as keeping off the exhibits - your children will enjoy being able to climb all over Mother Goose, Peter Pan's pirate ship and Cinderella's pumpkin coach. |