The annual Harbin Ice and Snow Festival in northern China features impressive ice sculptures, competitions, winter swimming, drone shows, and visitors enjoying the winter festivities amid the cold weather.
Every January, Harbin hosts a stunning ice festival where sculptors create illuminated ice sculptures, attracting visitors from afar to enjoy the magical winter displays and activities like ice swimming, with the festival running until mid-February.
Hideo Shimizu, now 95, recalls his traumatic 4½ months as a teenager in Unit 731, a Japanese biological and chemical warfare unit during WWII, where he was recruited at age 14 and assigned to the education department at its Harbin headquarters.
China has built a range of simulators in Harbin to recreate specific conditions in space, allowing equipment like satellite components to be tested before launch. Each chamber is designed to replicate different environments, from the lunar surface to microgravity.