International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin

The 28th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival will start on December 1, 2011 and last to February 29, 2012. The ceremony will be officially launched on January 5, 2012. As it before the festival is held with many winter activities, such as alpine skiing, sledding, winter-swimming, ice sculpture competition, ice & snow carnival, ice lantern exhibition and firework display etc.

The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival has been held since 1963, interrupted for a number of years during the Cultural Revolution until it was resumed in 1985. Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang province, in northeastern China. It is nicknamed "Ice City" and aptly so for winter January temperatures that average minus 18 degrees Celsius, under the influence of the cold winter wind from Siberia.

In these stunning photographs the festival's amazing sculptures are seen illuminated from the inside after night has fallen - with visitors meandering in between the impressive works.

Those who attend the event can navigate the ice cities on foot or via the festival's horse and carriage rides. As well as walking around and marvelling in awe at the colourful creations, they can also zip down snowy slides or climb up the staircases of ice castles and investigate what's inside.
The Harbin Ice and Snow Festival is one of the world's top ice festivals.

The best collections of ice artworks are exhibited in the following five main places:

• Harbin Ice and Snow World - came into being in 1999 and is one of the world's largest ice architecture parks. The inspiration for the ice and snow sculptures there usually is derived from traditional Chinese fairy tales or world famous architectures such as the Great Wall, the Egyptian Pyramids, etc.
• Ice Lantern Garden Party - ice lantern in broad sense refers to a series of plastic arts using ice and snow as raw material combining ice artworks with colored lights and splendid music. The specific patterns of ice lantern include ice and snow sculptures, ice flowers, ice architectures and so on.
  Sun Island Scenic Area - is the site of the Snow Sculpture Exposition displaying a wonderful snow world. It has the world's largest indoor ice and snow art museum and it opens to the public from November every year.
• Zhaolin Park - is a 'must see' during the Harbin Ice Festival because it has a traditional program that shows the most excellent ice lanterns. With water, lights and the natural ice from the Songhua River running through Harbin as the material, the ice lanterns are made by freezing water, piling up ice or snow, then carving, enchasing, decorating, etc.
• Yabuli International Ski Resort

Recommended Tours for Harbin Ice and Snow Festival Harbin:

• 3-Day Harbin Winter Tour
• 4-Day Harbin Ice and Snow Festival
• 5-Day Harbin Skiing Tour
• 5-Day Harbin Winter Adventure
• 6-Day Harbin Winter Vacations 

 

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Kiribati, PIPA (Phoenix Islands Protected Area)

The small Pacific Island nation of Kiribati has become a global conservation leader by declaring the Phoenix Islands a protected area to ensure its biological diversity and sustainability. It is a California-sized ocean wilderness of pristine coral reefs and rich fish populations threatened by over-fishing and climate change. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) conserves one of the Earth’s last intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, consisting of eight coral atolls and two submerged reef systems in a nearly uninhabited region of abundant marine and bird life. Located near the equator in the Central Pacific between Hawaii and Fiji, the Phoenix Islands form an archipelago several hundred miles long. They are part of the Republic of Kiribati, which comprises three distinct island groups (Gilbert Islands, Phoenix Islands and Line Islands) with a total of 33 islands to make it the largest atoll nation in the world. The 410,500-square-kilometer (158,453-square-mile) protected area also includes underwater mountains and other deep-sea habitat.
The Phoenix Islands and surrounding areas are home to some 120 species of coral and more than 500 species of fish. On January 28, 2008, the government of Kiribati formally declared the entire Phoenix group and surrounding waters a protected area, making its 410,500 square kilometres the world's largest marine protected area.

The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific, Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa, reported that Kiribati’s minister for environment, Tetapo Nakara, says the government wants to ensure a viable use of its resources. “Certain areas of the Phoenix Islands will be declared a marine protected area. In March, we’ll going to have the negotiation with the potential donors and after that we’ll determine the timeframe. The main reason for this is part of the government’s commitment to conserve the place and the biological diversity.”
Tetapo Nakara says it hopes to fully establish the area as a protected zone by the end of the year. The minister expects that the site will attract many tourists. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) will consist of underwater mountains, coral reefs and more than 520 species of fish. PIPA conserves one of the Earth’s last intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, consisting of eight coral atolls and two submerged reef systems in a nearly uninhabited region of abundant marine and bird life.

Kiribati first declared the creation of PIPA at the 2006 Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Brazil. On Jan. 30, 2008, Kiribati adopted formal regulations for PIPA that more than doubled the original size to make it the largest marine protected area on Earth.

Kiribati and the New England Aquarium (NEAq) developed PIPA over several years of joint scientific research, with funding and technical assistance from Conservation International’s (CI) Global Conservation Fund and Pacific Islands Program. The CI support for PIPA is part of the Coral Reef Initiative in the South Pacific (CRISP).
“Kiribati has taken an inspirational step in increasing the size of PIPA well beyond the original eight atolls and globally important seabird, fish and coral reef communities,” said Greg Stone, the NEAq vice-president of global marine programs. “The new boundary includes extensive seamount and deep sea habitat, tuna spawning grounds, and as yet unsurveyed submerged reef systems.”

“The creation of this amazing marine protected area by a small island nation in the Pacific represents a commitment of historic proportions; and all of this by a country that is under serious threat from sea-level rise attributed to global warming,” said CI President Russell A. Mittermeier.

Three NEAq-led research expeditions since 2000 found great marine biodiversity, including more than 120 species of coral and 520 species of fish, some new to science. Some of the most important seabird nesting populations in the Pacific, as well as healthy fish populations and the presence of sea turtles and other species, demonstrated the pristine nature of the area and its importance as a migration route.

Protecting the Phoenix Islands means restricting commercial fishing in the area, resulting in a loss of revenue that the Kiribati government would normally receive from issuing foreign commercial fishing licenses. NEAq and CI are helping Kiribati design an endowment system that will cover the core recurring management costs of PIPA and compensate the government for the foregone commercial fishing license revenues. The plan allows for subsistence fishing by resident communities and other sustainable economic development in designated zones of the protected area.

Keeping oceans and marine ecosystems intact and healthy allows them to better resist the impacts of climate change and continue their natural role of sequestering atmospheric carbon that causes global warming.

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