This winter, the "Ice City" Harbin is out of the circle!
"Let's go, go to Harbin to see the snow. Since December 2023, tourists from all over the country have been flying to Harbin to enjoy ice and snow, and the reputation of "pouring the sky" of many netizens has made Harbin a "top stream" for ice and snow travel check-ins.
During the New Year's Day holiday, Harbin Ice and Snow World is even more popular. According to reports, the planned area of this year's Harbin Ice and Snow World Park is 810,000 square meters, with 250,000 cubic meters of ice and snow, to create more than 1,000 ice and snow landscapes, the largest scale in the past. The ice city, which is made of hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of ice, shimmers with transparent brilliance under the light. While watching, visitors were amazed by the beauty of the "limited edition" ice sculptures and the exquisite ice carving skills.
So the question is, where does the ice that builds the ice world come from?
Where does the ice come from and why is it so clear?
Every year, when Harbin Ice and Snow World kicks off the ice construction, it marks the beginning of another ice and snow activity in Harbin - the Ice Mining Festival.
The reporter learned in an interview that starting from 2020, every time the "heavy snow" solar term, Harbin will usher in the annual ice mining festival.
"Every year, we collect ice from the Songhua River, and the crystal clear ice blocks are transported to the ice inspection rink, and the ice cubes that pass the inspection will be used to build the ice and snow world. Liu Shujuan told a reporter from China Environment News.
In order to find an ideal ice mining area, the quality and thickness of the ice must be available for mining. Who will judge and control? Naturally, Liu Shujuan is a member of the huge ice picking team.
Ice mining site on December 3, 2023. Photo by Liu Shujuan
Liu Shujuan, who grew up on the banks of the Songhua River, began to follow her father to pick ice on the river at the age of 18, and this year is the 28th year. She knows exactly where the ice is of good quality, where the thickness is high, and what kind of ice cannot be picked.
Ice mining site on December 3, 2023. Photo by Liu Shujuan
"Ice can't have bubbles, it can't have impurities, and there are many factors to consider when finding an ideal ice mining area, such as underwater bubbles, sediment content, etc., which will affect the transparency of the ice. Liu Shujuan said.
The mainland's industrial ice-making technology is quite mature, but the ice sculptures of the ice and snow world are always taken from the natural ice of the Songhua River.
Obviously, ice can be made by ice machine, why does Harbin Ice and Snow World still insist on artificial ice mining from the Songhua River?
"The ice landscape of the ice and snow world has extremely high requirements for the quality of ice, and crystal clarity is the key. Artificially frozen ice uses static water bodies that cannot flow, and the ice formed will produce large ice crystals, which are not as permeable and effective as river ice frozen from living water under natural conditions. Liu Shujuan continued, "Running water will hinder the formation of crystal nuclei, which can prevent bubble impurities from freezing in the ice cubes. Therefore, to this day, we still insist on artificial ice mining in the section of the Songhua River with slow flow, clear water quality and high ice transparency. ”
There are many rivers in the Northeast that can produce ice, so why do you want to pick ice from the Songhua River?
"The water quality is good. Liu Shujuan blurted out, "After so many years of ice mining, I can see that the water of the Songhua River is getting clearer and clearer, and the ice produced is transparent." Moreover, the water flow of the Songhua River is relatively stable, at a specific temperature in winter, the ice crystal nuclei are constantly generated, and they are constantly broken by the flowing water, so that the ice cubes formed have uniform density and few cracks, and the construction of beautiful large-scale ice sculpture buildings is needed for this kind of high-quality natural ice, and the ice of the Songhua River is the best raw material. ”
Why is the water quality of the Songhua River so good?
On the banks of the Songhua River in winter, there are ice cubes left over from the construction of the Ice and Snow World. In the sunlight, the ice cubes in all directions shimmer with colorful light.
Good water makes good ice.
At the press conference of the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Government not long ago, Ma Jian, deputy director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, publicly introduced, "The water quality of the state-controlled section of the main stream of the Songhua River has reached Class III, which is the best in history, and the remediation effect has initially appeared." ”
As the "mother river" of Harbin and even the entire Northeast region, the Songhua River basin is second only to the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, ranking third in the country. It originates from Tianchi, Baitou Mountain, the main peak of Changbai Mountain, flows through Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, starts from Jilin City, passes through Harbin, Jiamusi, Qiqihar and other cities to the east, and finally flows into the East China Sea.
One river lives in it, and both sides of the strait prosper. The Songhua River provides countless living and construction water for tens of millions of people along the river, and the people along the river are constantly building and beautifying the Songhua River.
In order to improve the quality of the water environment in the Songhua River basin and protect the "mother river" of the Songhua River, a series of measures and actions have been carried out in an orderly manner.
"Acute diseases are treated quickly, difficult diseases are treated skillfully, and deep diseases are treated carefully. Wang Yunlai, director of the Water Ecology and Environment Division of the Harbin Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, introduced that since the "14th Five-Year Plan", Harbin City has continued to carry out river basin system governance in 308 main and tributaries in Harbin City in accordance with the general idea of "promoting dry water with branches, river governance, winter prevention and spring governance, long-term persistence, territorial responsibility, coordinated efforts, and systematic governance to promote the improvement of the whole region".
Guided by the improvement of water environment quality in the river basin, Harbin has clarified the goals, tasks and projects for water quality improvement, adhered to the "one river and one policy" for river basin governance, "two-handed efforts" for pollution reduction and ecological expansion, "three water co-ordination" for water resource utilization, water ecological protection and water environment governance, "four-level supervision" for river and lake long-term systems, and "five guarantees" for water system governance, and promoted the realization of a linkage system of "comprehensive patrol, comprehensive supervision and comprehensive law enforcement".
"The ecological environment department, together with the water affairs, housing and construction, agriculture and rural affairs, and urban management departments, jointly supervised the five special rectifications of garbage, livestock and poultry, illegal construction, wading point sources, and agricultural non-point sources, and promoted the investigation and rectification of sewage outlets into the river, and a total of 3,154 remediation points have been completed. Wang Yunlai told a reporter from China Environment News, "In 2023, the excellent water quality rate of 25 state-controlled sections in Harbin will reach 88%, an increase of 4 percentage points year-on-year, 12 percentage points beyond the annual target issued by the province, and 4 percentage points above the target of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the highest value since the 13th Five-Year Plan for the assessment of excellent water bodies, and the outbound water quality indicators of the Harbin section of the main stream of the Songhua River are flat or better than those entering the country." ”
Water control cannot be "just sweeping the snow in front of the door", and it is necessary to coordinate the upstream and downstream, left and right banks, and main and tributary rivers to promote governance.
The reporter learned that in order to strengthen the emergency management of water environmental pollution incidents in the Songhua River Basin, the Jilin Provincial Government and the Heilongjiang Provincial Government have signed an agreement to jointly establish an environmental emergency coordination mechanism between the two provinces in the Songhua River Basin.
Harbin also organized the Bureau of Ecology and Environment, Natural Resources and Planning, the Maritime Safety Administration, and the Fire and Rescue Detachment to sign joint prevention and control agreements on water pollution emergencies with Suihua City, Changchun City, and Songyuan City in Jilin Province to ensure the safety of the water environment in the Songhua River Basin. Wang Yunlai introduced.
The Songhua River rushes down from Changbai Mountain, winding through the beautiful Songyuan through the city, adding a touch of agility and wisdom to this northern city.
According to the data, the Songhua River basin urban infrastructure construction shortcomings are obvious, agricultural planting, breeding pollution is large and wide, a comrade from the Songyuan City Ecological Environment Bureau of Jilin Province told the China Environment News: "Over the years, Songyuan City has vigorously promoted the battle to defend clear water, from the urban black and odorous water body remediation, rain and sewage pipe network construction, livestock and poultry breeding remediation, ship pollution source management, winter pollution treatment facilities construction and other aspects of comprehensive policies, and actively promote the river chief system, overall promotion of water environment governance, water ecological restoration, The water resources guarantee work has effectively protected the water ecological environment of the Songyuan section of the Songhua River Basin, and built a new picture of harmony between man and water. ”
The clear beauty of the Songhua River nourishes the people on both sides of the river and attracts tourists. On the Songhua River in winter, countless tourists walked into this fantastic winter party and enjoyed the endless fun brought by this "ice light show......
Source: China Environment WeChat official account