The structures on display at ICE! are created by a team of artisans who also participate in the  International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, China.  This event, held in January and February,  is constructed by thousands of professional artisans working with millions of pounds of ice (amazing pictures can be found here and here and here and here).  As part of the festival, more than 2,000 artisans carve a 100-acre walk-through Ice Park each year from blocks of ice taken from the Songhua River.

This annual festival starts in early January at Zhao Lin Park, which is named after a general buried in the park. Extremely popular among locals and tourists, the festival runs for two months.  The "Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival" is one of the world's four largest ice and snow festivals, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec Winter Carnival, and Norway's Ski Festival.

From what did this amazing artistry evolve?

Ice Lantern Festivals can be traced back as far as the late Ming and early Qing dynasties of Imperial China. Five hundred years ago the far northern province of Heilongjiang had an indigenous population whose life was similar to the American Inuit with one large difference, where the Inuits are sea hunters, the people of Hailongjiang were forest hunters.

During long winter nights, getting lost in the forest was a real problem for the hunters. The frequently overcast skies obscured the stars, and without the compass, navigation was nearly impossible. So the clever Chinese came up with a novel solution. Allowing water to partially freeze in wooden buckets. Once overturned, this formed an ice block into which a candle would be placed in the center. The ice surrounding the candle sheltered the flame and acted as a type of lens magnifying the light from the candle –- creating an ice lantern. The hunters strung these lanterns each night, leading from their homes to the hunt site.

In modern times, an Ice Lantern Festival has been held every winter in celebration of these brave hunters. As part of the Festival, citizens of Harbin, China cut blocks of ice out of the Songhua River to do some simple carving before placing them on display among intricately constructed ice lanterns. During the seven-month long winters, one of the highlights became informal competitions between families to see who could create the most impressive display of sculptures and carvings for the Festival. Sculptures of chickens, ducks and common household items soon grew into impressive displays of pigs, cows and barns.

In 1963, the Mayor of Harbin was so impressed by many of the amateur ice displays that he decided to create formal competition and encouraged adults and children to create more refined and extensive displays of ice for the following winter. The Mayor's goal was to stimulate the artistic and cultural natures of his populous during the long dark winters, a time otherwise of little activity. Organized in the public parks as a government sponsored event, the family-created displays of 40 years ago have now grown into mammoth creations. 

If you are wondering why Harbin is so closely identified with ice and snow... consider this:

• Harbin is located in Northeast China, where it  receives severe cold winter winds from Siberia.
• The average temperature in summer is 70 degrees (21 degrees Celsius),  and about 2 degrees (-17 degrees Celsius) in winter. While sources differ by a few degrees (probably due to frozen thermometers), It can be as cold as -36 degrees (-38 degrees Celsius) in winter.
• Harbin stays below "freezing" for almost half of the year.
• You can imagine why Harbin has gotten the nickname "ice city." (Although its more prominent nicknames include "Oriental Moscow" and "Oriental Paris," after the city's Russian and European cultural influences.)