Harbin Ice Festival – Austin Bunton Designs

This is a big area full of walkthrough ice-sculptures, like a small fake/fairytale town.

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Table of Contents:

Introduction
Dimensions & Layout
List of Biggest Sculptures
Smaller Sculptures
Lighting
Transportation
Advisories
Special Features
History
Location & Overall
Day
Night
Flagpoles
Snowmen Area
2022 Update: Sculptures Not Pictured Above
Yggdrasil-sculpture Design
2022 Update: Scale-model in Minecraft

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Introduction:

Inspired by its namesake in China, this celebration of ice-shaping artistry and feats of wintry structural engineering demonstrates yet another of the many Inisfreean masteries of the elements and terraforming. Already the size of a village (covering a plot > 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile; more than 7,000,000 square feet), and with enough room set aside for potential expansions, this area and attraction of Inisfree promises to impress even the most-traveled of winter-wonderland tourists.

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Dimensions & Layout:

Taking up roughly one third of one of the quadrants of Inisfree’s Snow-dunes region, this compound of building-sized ice sculptures includes ones standing as tall as a dozen stories. Some of these ice sculptures are just giant statues of various animals, sometimes mythological ones, while other sculptures here are bars, castles, hotels, pyramids, and slides, all made out of nothing but ice.

circumference/perimeter: ~9,632.12′
diameter: ~3,066′
area: ~7,380,000 sq.ft. (0.2647210744 square mile)
each sculpture’s plot: ~146′ x 146′; 21,316 sq.ft. (x26 plots)
sculpture heights: ~40-150′
space between sculptures for walkers/photos: at least 146′, sometimes as many as ~876′

The perimeter is lined with metal flagpoles, the exact number for all the nations and other realms/organizations allied with us, their flags displayed in alphabetical order. All these flagpoles are topped with an LED-based white orb about the size of a volleyball. Spotlights from below keep each flag ideally lit at night; to show off all its colors 24/7.

Two side-by-side ~146′-wide staircases, separated by a ~146′ space, allow up and down foot-traffic to and from this attraction. These stairs are kept ice-free. Handrails (non-metal) are in parallel diagonal rows (following the slope of the steps) ~14.6′ apart; there are 11 anchored into both of these staircases.

The area of this attraction is a plateau of snowy terrain (with good traction; not icy) elevated a story or two above the snow-dunes terrain of the rest of our central mountain’s summit. Its edge (just (several feet) beyond where the flagpoles are anchored) has a waist-level railing. If you still slip and slide over that edge, you’ll just land in soft snow ~10′ down (and ICVs will notice immediately, coming to check on you).

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List of Biggest Sculptures:

Each of the 26 plots has one of the sculptures listed below (the bridges also listed, as they are quite large, though they do not occupy any plots; they connect some of them). These are the ice-sculptures which are at least 40′ tall.

Aqueduct (lit blue)
Bridge/s (lit purple (lanterns) on blue (steps))
Castle (lit yellow) with a dragon curled up inside (symbolizing how dragon-people are both protectors and protected)
Cathedral (lit white and sky-blue)
Chinese Gate (lit red)
Christmas Tree (vertically-elongated wedding-cake stack)
Circus Tent (lit alternating red and white) –with a carousel / merry-go-round inside
Coliseum/Colosseum (lit yellow)
Cyprus Trees (tall ellipsoids in two parallel rows, lit green)
Dominoes Curve (lit white)
Elephant (lit gray; dimmer white)
Farm Rows (crop lines lit green, at angles so they double as slide lanes)
Greek Temple (lit gray; dimmer white)
Igloo (giant; hotel-size)
Japanese Fortress (lit gray (walls) and blue (roofs))
Kryptonian (larger-than-life Supergirl, lit blue (outfit), red (boots, cape, and symbol), yellow (hair), and white (skin))
Loveheart (lit pink)
Mage Tower (lit purple)
Obelisk (lit yellow)
Pagoda (lit red and yellow)
Pyramid (lit yellow) –with the same chambers, slanted hallways, and starlight shafts as in the Giza/Great pyramid (though, of course, not resonating the same way those bigger and stone-lined ones do)
Spire (lit white)
Taj Mahal (lit white)
UFO (Haunebu model?, lit gray) – instead of the Space Shuttle / Launch Platform (which was primitive and polluting), and instead of the Starship Enterprise (which is regarded, in our realm, as primitive and operating in poor taste)
Vimana with Nagas (ship lit brown, each Naga lit green or white)
Wall (vertically wavy like a serpent) – perimeter of the castle-sculpture
Yggdrasil (each of its 9 orbs lit a different color; red Jotunheim, orange Muspelheim, yellow Vanaheim, green Midgard, blue Niflheim, purple Asgard, brown, white Alfheim, gray Svartalfheim, black Helheim)

All of these sculptures are big enough that you can walk into them, if not on them (i.e. if they have a castle-like walkway on a higher level), the exceptions being:

the Christmas tree
the Cyprus trees
the dominoes curve/sequence
the giant elephant
the Kryptonian
the obelisk
Yggdrasil

Just look for an obvious staircase and entry/exit arch; if you see one, there are floors inside you can take stairs to.

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Smaller Sculptures:

Hundreds of ‘regular-sized’ ice-art pieces are also here;

a hot-air balloon (with its basket on the snowy ground)
BattleMechs (small and mid-sized; ~20-30′ tall)
galloping horses and pegasi (multiple Pegasus)
musical instruments from around the world (life-size if a harp or piano, and larger-than-life if something like a flute or guitar)
numerous copies of the statues and figurines of Statue Park; people we regard as famous and exemplary
small and mid-sized sailboats; their masts give them a height of at least 8′, but not more than 40′
snowmen (field/lines of)
vehicles such as racecars and motorcycles –and a locomotive (all colorfully-lit)
welcome-messages/sayings in the human-height letters/characters of the languages we speak/teach here

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Lighting:

These sculptures are always lit, though we only turn on their colored lights when there is no direct sunlight; we like the way they like clean, white, and silvery when they are just ice blocks in view of the Sun.

The best times to see their distinct colors are:

during our artificial/simulated night-times; an ~8-hour period from ~9 PM to ~5 AM every day during the Antarctic single-day (always daytime/daylight) Summer
during the single-night (always night-time) Antarctic Winter –though we, as you might expect, switch to simulating daytime/daylight during those months

Overhead is the lighting from the underside of Cloud City II, which simulates the cycle of Earth‘s current moon.

Two auroras also occasionally illuminate this part of Inisfree, making the snowy walkway areas take on subtle colors from whatever is high overhead. Our local aurora is the one of those two which is generated by our city’s version of a HAARP station. Both auroras are well-forecast, that information (i.e. Space-weather reports) available online (accessible only within Inisfree; via our private Internet –and/or which any Inisfreean girl (ICV) can just tell you about, if you ask her).

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Transportation:

Most people like to walk from our igloos village (which is just ~400′ away from the two staircases of/to this attraction). It takes ~2 minutes at ~3 MPH (normal walking speed). Take your time; some of your steps will be into knee-deep snow, though there will be frequented paths where the snow-dunes are packed down.

Land-vehicles (cars, etc.) cannot drive here (even if they have off-road capability; we do not allow them near, and there is no parking for them on or around this attraction). However, the summit’s section of our highway system is 1/4 of a mile (1,320′) away; you can be dropped off and picked up on the shoulder of it nearest the igloos village, or from the parking lot of the Spire Temple.

For those who can fly (via telekinesis/levitation or your own wings), you can fly right here. Very small personal aircraft, such as an “Owl” hover-saddle, can also be flown here for drop-offs and pick-ups (though nothing is allowed to fly over any of the sculptures, nor over the walkways between them; you’ll have to stop and hover outside where the flagpoles are anchored).

Once you are here, carriages are available to ‘drive’ you around. They are not horse-drawn; they are moved via small internal repulsines, allowing them to hover at ground-level without leaving marks on the snow/walkways. Made from 3D-printed plastic (i.e. vegan), and complete with waterproof cushions inside, you won’t have to worry about getting stuck to any metal parts.

There is also a zero-pollution passenger-train which looks like an old-fashioned locomotive with sightseeing train-cars. It follows a circular track which is equidistant between the flagpoles and the outermost sculpture-plots. Its station is near the two entrance/exit staircases, and it stops there every _9 minutes (for ~one minute; 30 seconds to let people off, and 30 seconds to let more on), traveling at ~13 MPH, completing one loop around this attraction in that time, 7 laps/loops every hour.

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Services:

We provide on-site food, drinks, and women;

Food-vendor stands for each of our restaurants are spread out at even intervals near the perimeter (81 restaurants in Inisfree (different types; not individual buildings; we have hundreds of them in total across our realm), along a ~8,752.48‘-circumference (140′ closer than the perimeter of this entire attraction), thus ~100′ dispersion (~108′, with each cart/hut/stand being ~8’ wide)). They are between the train track and the outermost sculpture-plots. All of them offer hot chocolate with their other/usual beverages. All also have non-plastic bottles and cups of water.
A kajirae warming-house (where we keep girls-for-rent; pleasure-slaves) is on the opposite side of the staircases-area from the train-stop. The kajirae working there wear form-fitting vegan fur-like layers so they stay warm. You can tell them apart from everyone else, even with them bundled up like that, by their collars; their slave-collars will always be visible through the opening of their hoodies.

Vendors are resupplied with food, drinks, cups, and to-go containers via hover-shuttles following the G.A.H., and kajirae are brought up, and back down from, this area atop the central mountain via luxury motor-coaches (which rarely ever repulsine-hover, meaning those passengers (the kajirae) always have to walk to and from them over the snow-dunes).

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Advisories:

Climbing these sculptures is not permitted, as the chance to slip and get hurt is too high (though people in our realm become incredibly strong, if not invincible –eventually).

Licking any ice or metal here is strongly discouraged, as your tongue will likely get stuck to it. If that happens, though, there are always ICVs nearby who can bring a cup of warm water to comfortably detach the surface of your tongue from whatever frozen thing you tried to lick.

Every now and then a fog/mist-like cloud will form or move across the summit of the central mountain, and if it reaches this attraction… it will make it a little more difficult to see all of the sculptures, especially at a distance –though blizzard-like (“whiteout”) conditions are rare. Should ever you lose your way/bearings, any ICV nearby will notice and come to help you –and all ICVs can effortlessly see perfectly straight through any conditions, blizzard or not. Just hold her hand and she’ll walk you safely to wherever you intended to go (and likely hug you goodbye and good-luck at that point, wishing you a nice rest of your day).

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Special Features:

Beneath Inisfree’s Harbin II, as it is now called, are not only man-made (Inisfreean-made) ice caves, but also a sewer system made of ice (though no waste products pass through it), and one which connects every single ice sculpture on the surface. Guests can climb up or down (via ladders) through any of the manholes to access this underground part of the festival.

Inisfree’s Harbin is open year-round.

If you look at our city-map, and draw an imaginary-line from the Tornado Crater… through the tip/center of the Spire Temple… and continue that straight line all the way across to the far-side of this attraction’s circular area, and then if you stand anywhere that line would be along the snowy walkways, and face the Tornado Crater during one of the training sessions there, it will look, from your perspective, as if a distant white/snowy cyclone has formed above or from the top of Spire Temple, its golden trumpeter angel woman statue perfectly stable in that twister’s midsection.

If you are at the sculpture nearest the curve/side of this attraction which is closest to the top of the Avalanche Wall, you’ll have a fantastic view of a big portion/wedge of the Inisfreean landscape/terrain below –all the way out to our Swamp Region. If you can’t quite get into line-of-sight with something out there you wanted to see from up here (since the Avalanche Wall is ~200′ away from the border/perimeter of this attraction), try walking up an inside staircase of one of the multi-story sculptures and looking out one of its ‘windows’ (ice arches). Either way, you’ll at least see the gleaming Antarctic ice-dome/plateau terrain beyond our Perimeter Wall.

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History:

2022: This special place is becoming a favorite for High King Auz and frost-giantess Tess Black to go on strolls and dates through. They always hold hands, fingers interlaced, and take their sweet time, stopping at each sculpture to kiss some more. Both have been smiling very much as they stroll amidst these pleasantly-cold works of art, further kindling their new love –and the reunion of their peoples.

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Location & Overall: