City of Ice

Millions of people flock to the frigid city of Harbin, China, every year to see a real winter wonderland. Harbin holds one of the largest winter celebrations in the world, complete with huge sculptures made from ice and snow.

The city has hosted the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival every January and February since 1963. The festival has grown so popular that last year nearly 15 million people braved bone-chilling temperatures to see its wonders.

The festival offers many activities. But a crowd favorite is the larger-than-life ice sculptures. The carved blocks of ice can resemble frozen animals, popular characters, and famous landmarks, like the Empire State Building in New York. Some sculptures tower more than 45 meters high. They’re so big that visitors can walk inside them or climb on top of them.

Millions of people flock to the frigid city of Harbin, China every year. They are there to see a real winter wonderland. Harbin holds one of the largest winter celebrations in the world. It has huge sculptures made from ice and snow.

The city has hosted the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival since 1963. It happens every January and February. The festival has grown very popular. Last year, nearly 15 million people went. They braved bone-chilling temperatures to see its wonders.

The festival offers many activities. But the larger-than-life ice sculptures are a crowd favorite. The carved blocks of ice can resemble frozen animals and popular characters. The sculptures can also be famous landmarks, like the Empire State Building in New York. Some sculptures tower more than 45 meters high. They're so big that visitors can walk inside them or climb on top of them.

More than 2,000 sculptures cover an area larger than 185 acres. That’s more than double the size of Disneyland in California. Lights inside the sculptures glow at night, giving the area the feel of a multicolored dreamland.

Every year, it takes nearly 15,000 people to create the “ice city.” Workers cut and haul large blocks of ice from the frozen Songhua River nearby. Sculptors spend two weeks carving the ice into works of art with tools such as chisels. It’s estimated that more than 110,000 cubic meters of ice are used.

Some of the sculptors compete against each other for prizes. Marielle Heessels is a Dutch artist whose sculpture “Entwined” won second prize in the 2014 competition. Carving a 2-cubic-meter block of ice was so physically demanding that the work kept her warm even in the cold, Heessels says.

“I would love to go to Harbin again,” says Heessels. “The snow and ice world is a very impressive place.”

More than 2,000 sculptures cover an area larger than 185 acres. That's more than double the size of Disneyland in California. Lights inside the sculptures glow at night. This gives the area the feel of a multicolored dreamland.

Every year, it takes nearly 15,000 people to create the "ice city." Workers cut and haul large blocks of ice from the frozen Songhua River nearby. Sculptors spend two weeks carving the ice into works of art. They use tools such as chisels. It's estimated that more than 110,000 cubic meters of ice are used.

Some of the sculptors compete against each other for prizes. Marielle Heessels is a Dutch artist. Her sculpture, "Entwined" won second prize in the 2014 competition. Carving a 2-cubic-meter block of ice was very physically demanding . But the work kept her warm even in the cold, Heessels says.

"I would love to go to Harbin again," says Heessels. "The snow and ice world is a very impressive place."

In one of the ice-sculpting competitions at Harbin, artist Marielle Heessels and her team used 3/4 of the ice blocks they were given to create a sculpture.

The following area model shows the fraction 3/4 because 3 of the 4 pieces are shaded. How can you change the area model to represent an equal fraction using eighths?

What is the value of the new fraction you created with this model? Explain why that fraction is equivalent, or equal, to 3/4.

At last year’s ice festival, a snow sculpture of Santa Claus was 25 meters high. A sculpture of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was 15 meters tall. Rudolph was 3/5 the height of Santa. Choose the set that shows 3/5 and its equivalent.

An artist has only 2/3 the number of ice blocks he needs to make a sculpture of a bridge.

Which fraction is equivalent to this value?

Draw an area model for both fractions to show they have the same value.

The diagram to the right represents a tower of an ice castle. The shaded area shows the fraction of the tower a sculptor built in one day. Redraw the area model to show an equivalent fraction for 4/6 in which the denominator is 12.