Longqing's an ice spectacle to rival Harbin

On arriving in Beijing in August 2001, I was so desperate to cram everything in that by winter I had been to most of Beijing's famous sites, and many in the surrounding districts.

I planned to go to the Longqing Gorge Ice Festival in Yanqing county, but it wasn't a major listing and in an entire decade I never quite managed it. The godfather of ice festivals, Harbin in Heilongjiang province, was much higher up on my agenda and I have yet to realize that trip.

This year marked the 25th Longqing spectacle, and one day during the Spring Festival, my friend and our two children found ourselves on Bus 919 from Deshengmen to Yanqing, home of the ice sculpture massif.

And now I cannot understand why this spectacular exhibition is so understated.

It requires a few layers of clothing and a little perseverance, but then you are in for one of the most stunning gems around wintry Beijing. Nowhere in my home country, the United Kingdom, would you stumble over something like this, and not just because of the unsuitably warm weather. It would simply be too much hard work for anyone to bother to do.

Giant snowballs at the entrance (originally elephants), gaudy lanterns and Peking Opera masks do not prepare visitors for the spectacle within.

There are two huge areas filled with national and international landmarks - the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, pagodas, galleries, European buildings - and they are entirely constructed with bricks of ice.

Transparent hallways, pillared passages, flights of steps, curly roofs - all carved out of the smoothest, flawless ice - tower above, so impressive it's almost possible to forget the freezing temperatures.

At night, the best time to go, subtle colored lights illuminate your route as you glide on polished ice along glassy corridors. At the end of the dazzle there's a real frozen waterfall, and like the Buddha in the Lama Temple in downtown Beijing, it is so high that any decent photograph is impossible.

For track lovers the ice festival is a feast. Colored lights are strung around the surrounding mountains to resemble the meandering serpent of the Great Wall. An enormous ice dragon stretches its tail way up the mountainside, with six escalators running through its neck and body to end up in the One Hundred Flowers Cave.

As is so often the case with so many things Chinese, one can always expect the unexpected. Who could have predicted arriving in sub-Saharan Africa in the midst of the freezing mountains, where the temperature suddenly rises and an equatorial paradise with plastic elephants, zebras, giraffes, jungle and burbling streams, accompanied by recorded parrot squawks, opens up.

This oasis of warmth toward the end of the tour is not mentioned in any of the advertisements, but is nevertheless one of those charming features that pop up out of nowhere for no apparent reason.

So are the snow slides and Potala Palace near the exit, which are a bit slippery but nonetheless, a delight for smaller visitors.

In the location itself is a comforting sign for coffee, although the caf did not appear to actually serve the beverage. There's a Holiday Inn just nearby, which will order cabs for you. Other options are local farmers' houses.

The gates close at 8 pm and the festival itself will finish at the end of the month. But for the Lantern Festival, which falls today, for those with the time and the daring, there is surely no better destination.

Harbin is still on my list. Perhaps we'll make it by 2021.

For China Daily