The annual Longqing Gorge Ice and Snow Carnival will open in mid-January 2024. In the scenic area, craftsmen are working feverishly to collect ice and make ice, and some of the ice sculptures and snow sculptures have already begun to take shape. In order to welcome the Year of the Dragon, this ice lantern festival takes "Ice and Snow Fantasy in Longqing Gorge" as its theme. This year, fancy ice sculpture will be more than three times as many as in previous years, and will be the first time to launch the ice amusement program, drone flight performance in glacier canyon, bringing tourists a brand new experience of enjoying the lanterns and ice.
Beginning from 1987, Longqing Gorge Ice Lantern Festival has a history of 37 years, which is the largest and long-established ice lantern art exhibition in North China, and is also a gold-lettered signboard of Longqing Gorge. This year's Carnival covers an area of about 250,000 square meters, and plans to create 200 ice sculptures, 100 snow sculptures, 2,000 tree lights, as well as the Great Wall of the mountain, attic silhouette lights, decorative lighting, and so on, where there will be a sea of light and ice.
In ancient China, in times of drought, people often pray to the Dragon King for manna. So the 100-meter snow sculpture with the theme of "Dragon King helps raining" shows the whole process of his role in helping raining, which is magnificent and worth visiting. Compared with previous years, what is more innovative this year is that a unique "ACGN culture" scene will be launched, integrating the game characters, scenes and Longqing Gorge landscape. Young people will be invited to play the relevant roles, attracting the generation after 00s and 10s to visit with their parents.
The theme of the previous Ice Lantern Festival, although different, but the reservoir dam down the icefall spectacle is retained year after year. This year's icefall has been shaped, 70-meter-high dam hanging down a huge icefall, decorated with ice flowers, icicles, forming a thousand feet of crystal spectacle. Every year, this is a very hot location for photos.
During the Festival, a drone light show with the theme of "Flying Dragons in the Sky" will be staged on a regular basis, with 1,000 drones changing shapes and flying in formation, bringing a visual feast in the air. There will be 15 to 19 drone light shows, each lasting 10 to 12 minutes, which is worth expecting.
While enjoying the lights, this year scenic area will, for the first time, launch the ice rides of glacier canyon. Longqing Gorge scenic area is known as the suburbs of Beijing "small Li River". Because in summer people can take a boat ride through the mountains and rivers enjoying cozy moments, and in winter the valley is turned into a glacier canyon, where there are banana boats, ice dragon boat trains, ice snow circles, as well as 2-kilometer-ice-drifting by professional drivers, adding much more fun.
