A fantastical tour through China's winter wonderland
The Harbin International Snow and Ice festival makes the most brutal of seasons magical


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(Image credit: (REUTERS/Stringer)From December to March, the so-called "ice city" welcomes millions of tourists to experience a veritable winter wonderland designed and built by some 10,000 artists and work)

(Image credit: (REUTERS/Aly Song))

(Image credit: People ride slides on ice sculptures.)

(Image credit: (REUTERS/Aly Song))

(Image credit: (FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images))

(Image credit: Visitors use kaleidoscopes to view the winter landscape and ice sculptures.)

(Image credit: The sun sets behind a castle made from blocks of ice.)

(Image credit: A man takes a photo of an ice sculpture on a main street in Harbin.)

(Image credit: People visit an ice sculpture made to look like Rome's Colosseum.)

(Image credit: A woman is dwarfed by a giant snow sculpture.)

(Image credit: People visit an ice sculpture made to look like China's Forbidden City.)

(Image credit: Spectators watch fireworks explode over ice sculptures.)
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Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.