When I first saw the signboards advertising for the Ice Festival, I was excited. After years of catching glimpses of the Harbin Ice Festival only through television shows, I would finally have a chance to admire the ice sculptures up front?!
Half begging K to go with me, we headed towards the New Territories, where the ice festival was held at. It felt slightly off, as no one had heard of that location before.
After alighting from the bus, there was still a 15 minutes walk ahead of us. The whole thing seems like a scam, since the bus stop was located in a light industrial area and nothing seem to resemble a facility advanced enough to store ice sculptures under the warm Hong Kong weather.
But according to Lok's rule of thumb, you are most probably on the correct route if there are families with young children taking the same route. Honestly, which parent would want to lug their children around difficult terrains? Anyways, there were plenty of families with young children (plus strollers in toll), so we were more assured.
On the route there, we passed 10+ signs telling us that the exhibition is 10 - 15 minutes away. It felt like secondary school NAPFA test again; roadside helpers keep telling you that you are passing the last few checkpoints when you are not even halfway through the route -.-
After passing an ancestral graveyard, we also spotted a racetrack for remote controlled cars and also the entrance to a war game arena. So cool!
Even though we arrived around 1pm, we needed to wait until 2.30pm to get into the main ice sculpture exhibition hall. There were many stores around the area for the visitors to pass the time (and to fling money), but not enough chairs for the weary to rest.
Finally we got into the chilly exhibition hall! Grabbing a thick winter coat from the helpers at the entrance, we squeezed our way into the exhibition hall to see the ice sculptures right in front of our eyes.It was too squeezy so we didn't get to take many photos. The most disappointing thing was that the ice slides (for adults) were closed for maintenance. Nevertheless, some of the sculptures are really intricate.
Overall? Recommended for people (like me) who most probably couldn't afford to see the real thing in Harbin. Other than that, please consider going to Harbin because I still felt cheated heh.
