500px provided description: This is my most popular photo on Flikr, so I thought now would be a suitable time of year to post it on 500px too.

This was taken at the 2008 Harbin International Snow and Ice Festival. Harbin is an old Russian built city in the far Northeast of China. Every year they have a spectacular display of snow sculptures and ice palaces. It really is something that everyone should go and see. I've been twice.

The picture was taken during Chinese new year in 2008. It was extremely cold at that time, something like -25?C (77?F). So cold that you could only bear to be outside for half and hour at a time, then find somewhere to warm up.

I took the picture using a cheap compact digital camera that I had bought in a bargain bin in 2006. I steadied it by sitting the camera on top of another block of ice and holding my breath - no tripod. [#cold ,#night ,#lights ,#snow ,#ice ,#palace ,#colorful ,#China ,#Harbin ,#Heilongjiang ,#Harbin ,#Ice festival]