Written by: Yin Yanqi & Ji Xing
Photographed by: Liu Yang
Official Microblog: Lan Rui, Feng Jian & Liu Zhongkui
Translated by: Li Xiaojuan
Delicious snacks, exquisite ice lanterns and winter games...Last year, HIT Ice & Snow Festival became a hit on Wechat. This year, the second session Ice & Snow Festival came again as scheduled. On the evening of December 22, people were crowded in front of the Plaza of Electric Machinery Building and the pedestrian street to witness the opening of the Ice & Snow Festival. The main ice sculpture landscapes were lit in turn; fireworks were blooming around the stage; and balloons flied to the night sky. Wang Shuquan, Secretary of the Party Committee of HIT, opened the "Starlight Gate", officially inaugurating the second session Ice & Snow Festival.The opening ceremony was attended by Xiong Sihao, Standing Vice Secretary of the Party Committee of HIT, Vice President Anshi and Xu Xiaofei, Wu Songquan, Standing Committee of the Party Committee of HIT and Minister of Publicity, and Peng Yuankui, Assistant President.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "Ice and snow are also as valuable as mountains of gold and silver". Zhang Qingwei, Secretary of Heilongjiang Provincial Party committee, has repeatedly emphasized that "the development of ice and snow economy should be taken as an important task in restructuring and transformation". At provincial level,ice and snow culture is the characteristic cultural vein of Heilongjiang to go nationwide and even worldwide. At campus level,it is an important cultural card of HIT to build into a world-class university. Last winter, fully supported by the thorough planning of all HIT’s functional departments, the first session HIT Ice & Snow Cultural Festival was a big success, received wide praise from HIT faculties and students. This event was also shared and liked in a nationwide scale.
At this year's opening ceremony, HIT leaders awarded prizes to the winning teams of the International University Ice Sculpture Competition and the International Ice and Snow Innovation Construction Competition. In the International University Ice Sculpture Competition, through assessment from experts, "Lotus" won the first prize; "Tracing" and "Free Journey" won the second prize; and "Rhythm·Icy China", "Cyprinus Cloud Dragon" and "Undersea World" won the third prize. In the International Ice and Snow Innovation Construction Competition, Cambridge University won the Best Design and Construction Works Award; the wing from Tsinghua University, Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Leuven, Kent State University and HIT won the Excellent Design and Construction Works Award.
After the opening ceremony, some school leaders visited the ice and snow landscapes with faculties and students, jointly enjoying the winter carnival. All trees were brilliantly illuminated with neon lights, attracting a dense crowd to take photos to record this wonderful moment.
Alongside the pedestrian street, there were full of delicacies, such as skewers, sugar coated haws, sweet dumplings, cakes and so on. On the bustle streets, people happily played "ice and snow culture" themed games, such as grabbing ice cubes, ice and snow balls, three snowmen, ice and snow clocks...you could experience all you wanted. Even the long line to queue up failed to block people's enthusiasm for entertainment in winter.
This year's Ice and Snow Festival payed more attention to landscape coherence and tour experience of the snowy campus. The seven plates reconciled with each other, so more interactivity, involvement and entertainment were realized. The Festival mainly included the International University Ice Sculpture Competition, the International Ice and Snow Architecture Competition, the Snow Construction Competition, the Ice and Snow Games, Graduate Academic Forum, Photography Competition, the Ice and Snow Carnival, featured Food Exhibition and other series activities.
