Harbin resident Yu Xiaofeng said that winter swimming in her city can be dated back to the 1970s, after locals saw Russian Orthodox faithful being baptized in the river. The city is near the ...

They first had to carve out a pool in the Songhua River, thawing the 10-centimeter (4-inch) thick ice that froze overnight. Then they stripped down and, one by one, plunged into the bone-chilling ...

Despite the frigid temperatures, visitors brave the cold while locals offer warm clothing to combat the chill.

Different from the ice landscapes in other places, most of which are made using artificial ice, the ice sculptures in Harbin are all built with ice formed in nature. On the frozen Songhua River ...

Born in 1965 to Liu Zhongqian, a former speed skating coach of 1959 World Speed Skating Championships silver medalist Yang ...

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.

A tourist poses for photos by a snow sculpture at the Sun Island International Snow Sculpture Art Expo park in Harbin, ...

HARBIN, China (AP) — Faced with temperatures dipping to ... the extreme cold and take in the sculptures built from ice blocks carved from the Songhua River, which freezes from late October to late ...

Chen Xia, from the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, dived into the river even though she was suffering from a cold. She said the waters in her home city were warmer than those in Harbin ...

of ice blocks cut mainly from the adjacent Songhua River. There are satellite parks elsewhere in Harbin. “When I come here seeing all the ice sculptures and snow, it’s just so wow,” said Gu ...