The official opening date of the 34th Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival (Harbin Ice Festival 2018) is on January 5, 2018.

Organized by Heilongjiang Provincial Government, Harbin Municipal Government and  China National Tourism Administration, the great celebration will last to the end of February, 2018. The opening ceremony will be held in Harbin International Exhibition Center & City Stadium in the evening of January 5. A big firework display will come after a meeting in the Ice and Snow World Park.

The 2018 Harbin Ice Festival includes 3 theme parks:  the 30th Harbin Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo (in Sun Island Park), the 19th Harbin Ice and Snow World (in the west of Sun Island Park), and the 44th Ice Lantern Fair (in Zhaolin Park). In mid-December of 2017, the workers and sculptors will start to make the sculptures. From December 21 to Jan 4, snow and ice sculpture competitions will be held in these parks. The parks will have a trial run from December 24, 2017 to Jan 4, 2018.

If you visit Harbin for the Ice Festival 2018, try to avoid these expensive and crowded dates: Dec 24-26, 2017; Jan 1-3, 2018 and Feb 15-23, 2018.