Ice Ice Baby

The best time to see the annual ice lantern festival at Longqing Gorge is in the evening when the lights illuminate the amazing ice sculptures. We left Beijing in the afternoon to drive about 60 km northwest of Jordan’s house into the mountains to the festival sight. Along the way, we passed the Badaling area of the Great Wall which was set against the backdrop of the bright blue sky.

As if just for us, the lights at the festival turned on just as we arrived. The light and ice sculptures were amazing, with all sorts of figures, shapes, castles and buildings. This year, in tribute to Beijing’s bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, there were life sized ice sculptures of many types of athletes, greek gods, mascots, and so on, all illuminated in beautiful coloured lights. The walls on one side of the gorge were encased in sculpted white snow with carvings of the Great Wall, while wall murals, including beautiful cherry blossoms, adorned the other side. There were ice buildings that people could walk through and around. Jordan even sat on an ice chair next to an ice table. There were ice dragons and light sculpture goats to celebrate the year of the goat. And of course, red lanterns decorated the entrances and walkways.

For the more adventurous, there were cave walks, merry-go-round swings and rail track sleds, all of which we opted out.

While some of the exhibit was outdoors, most of the sculptures were enclosed by a temporary roof that was beautifully decorated. It took some time to walk through as there was so much to see. The turnaround point was absolutely spectacular as a huge separate room was built where the Gorge’s 165 ft tall frozen water falls were illuminated.