Three 12-year-old girls Einav, Yael and Maayan enjoy themselves on an ice slide featuring the Great Wall of China at the Jerusalem 'Ice City' Festival on February 20, 2013. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com / Zhang Jin]

 

　　Parents, children, and people of all ages flock to the festival; everybody has an excited look on their face. Yael Hadar is a mother of two girls. She brought her daughters right after the festival started and was happy that she chose to do so.

 

　　"We enjoyed very much. It's so amazing, sculptures of ice. It's incredible to see what people can do with ice. I took my two daughters. They are having fun here. They are really, really enjoying it. They don't want to go out."

 

　　The 'Ice City', featuring sculptures depicting dragons, dinosaurs and even a "water land", is heaven for children. Einav, Yael and Maayan are all 12-years-old. The three young girls like everything on view within the 'Ice City'.

 

　　"It's so cool! The coolest thing in the world! Amazing! It's so fun! Last year we were here every week. We wait for a whole year. We wait for it to open every day. So happy that we came here the first night."

 

　　Moving away from last year's ice models depicting Jerusalem's landmarks and exhibits based on popular local fairy tales and Biblical stories, this year's sculptures showcase images from the Far East, especially Chinese elements.

 

　　Bai Liang, Deputy General Manger of Heilongjiang Province Ice and Snow Art Development Company, responsible for building the 'Ice City' for the past two years, says they want to introduce elements of Chinese culture to foreign people.

 

　　"This year we introduced the Great Wall, Tian'anmen and slides with dragons… and the results have been very good. We have a plan to gradually promote Chinese elements to cities in which we hold ice exhibits, and we have found that foreigners enjoy such exhibits very much. Children coming this year are really happy and often don't leave until closing time."

 

　　Visitors to this year's festival can also enjoy a breathtaking acrobatics show on ice up to four times every day, for an hour each time. Yoel Peer is the owner of leading Israeli ticket agency Bimot which sells tickets to the festival.

 

　　"This year we also brought something special. We brought a very good group of acrobats from China. We decided this year to bring something more because we felt that the audience would like to spend more time in the 'city of ice', and we give them another option to spend time and money."

 

　　And the show has stunned local people.

 

　　"Very good, and I enjoyed very much.

 

　　Oh very, very good. It's been wonderful, wonderful.

 

　　Wonderful. I've been in China, I saw very nice things, but here it was wonderful."

 

　　Daniella Wechsler is a newcomer to the 'Ice City' Festival. Fascinated by the acrobatics show, she says she will bring her children to watch it next time.

 

　　"It's my first time and it's gorgeous. Amazing, amazing! I'm sorry my kids are not here to see it. Please God I will (bring them here)! Got two months to bring them out. Yes, I will. It's beautiful."

 

　　The Jerusalem 'Ice City' Festival lasts from February 20 to April 30. Last year it attracted 300,000 people from across Israel, and 50,000 more visitors are expected this time.

 

　　For CRI, I'm XYee.