Ice collection starts in Harbin for upcoming winter festival

Ice miners dressed in traditional costumes perform a folk ceremony to pray for peace and happiness before they start collecting ice from the frozen Songhua River in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, December 7, 2018. The blocks of ice they carve out over the coming month will be used to construct the city's spectacular Ice and Snow World, a theme park where ice sculptures will be illuminated with colorful lights. [Photo: VCG]