The swimmers train throughout the year for this. They first carve out a pool in the Songhua River by breaking the thick layer of ice that forms again overnight and scooping out the pieces.

Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit), visitors to China's wintertime resort city of Harbin often make a beeline for stalls selling padded ...

Visitors enjoy a ride on a tube slide pulled by a vehicle on the frozen Songhua river in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang ...

The main festival covers 1 square kilometer (.6 square miles) of the city, with the sculptures using 13,000 cubic meters (460,000 cubic feet) of ice blocks cut mainly from the adjacent Songhua River.

6 square miles) of the city, with the sculptures using 13,000 cubic meters (460,000 cubic feet) of ice blocks cut mainly from the adjacent Songhua River. There are satellite parks elsewhere in Harbin.

People are making the best of the freezing weather in northeast China: Sculptors have finely chiseled ice into elaborate structures resembling landmark castles and temples, and visitors are ...

The main festival covers 1 square kilometer (.6 square miles) of the city, with the sculptures using 13,000 cubic meters (460,000 cubic feet) of ice blocks cut mainly from the adjacent Songhua River.

Participants race in an ice dragon boat event on the frozen Songhua River in Harbin, Heilongjiang province on Tuesday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] Despite the extremely cold weather and ...