24/7 Space News
ICE WORLD
Warmer winter melts incomes of China's ice cutters
Warmer winter melts incomes of China's ice cutters
By Mary YANG
Harbin, China (AFP) Dec 18, 2024

Gruff men shout over an angry motor as they float huge blocks of ice towards a rusty conveyor belt on the bank of a frozen river in northeastern China.

Every winter, dozens of workers brave subzero temperatures to hack ice from the mighty Songhua River and deliver it around Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province.

It forms the building blocks for the massive sculptures that are the centrepiece of the city's Ice and Snow World, an annual festival that draws tens of thousands of visitors.

But this year, a warmer autumn has delayed the freeze and left the river ice thinner than normal.

"By now, the ice is (usually) 57 or 58 centimetres (23 inches) thick," said Huang Wu, 52, who has been harvesting it for two decades.

"This year, the ice has only reached about 44 or 45 centimetres," he told AFP earlier this month as he rested close to the shoreline in the pink light of dawn.

Like the rest of his eight-man crew, Huang is a fisherman who trades his net for a handheld ice pick once the river freezes over.

Clad in orange life vests and knee-high work boots, his team stood in a neat line on the snow-dusted surface, with one man chanting the count as they chiselled out slabs exactly 1.6 metres (five feet three inches) long.

The crew earns about two yuan ($0.27) per brick and can produce up to 2,700 in each gruelling 16-hour shift, Huang said, adding that they split their earnings equally.

Despite its high quality, Huang said the relative lack of ice has hit his income so far this winter.

"When the ice is thick, you make more money. When the ice is thin, you make less," he told AFP.

- Warmer than normal -

Once cut, the white, glossy blocks are hauled onto a motorised ramp that transports them to a line of forklifts.

From there, they are loaded onto trucks and lugged to the festival about a five-minute drive away.

Sculptures in recent years have included a towering palace, a tri-coloured snowflake and replicas of China's iconic Terracotta Army -- all illuminated in bright colours at night.

The attractions delight visiting tourists, but Huang said he has "seen enough" ice to last him a lifetime.

And while the frozen air chills outsiders to the bone, to hardy locals it still feels unseasonably warm.

Daytime temperatures in Harbin would usually hover around minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus four degrees Fahrenheit) by this point in the year, but lately it has got that cold only at night, Huang told AFP.

Climate change has brought extreme heat to large parts of the world this year, and Europe's climate monitor has said 2024 is "effectively certain" to be the hottest ever recorded.

China is the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive global warming, but has been building renewable energy infrastructure at a rapid pace and aims to become carbon neutral by 2060.

- 'When it's cold, we suffer' -

For others, however, warmer temperatures bring welcome relief from northeastern China's notoriously bitter winters.

"When the wind blows, no one can stand it," said first-time ice cutter Zhu Weizhong. "When it's cold, we suffer."

Zhu, a father of three who farms and works in city maintenance for most of the year, said the backbreaking labour beat sitting around at home.

There was "little work for the winter" in Harbin, he said, adding that he earned around 260 yuan for each eight-hour shift.

Compared to other jobs, chipping away at the frozen river was "tiring", Zhu, who is in his 50s, said.

But, he added, "you finish, and you look and think, 'Ah, I've done so much today'".

Related Links
Beyond the Ice Age

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
ICE WORLD
Buried landforms unveil ancient glacial history beneath the North Sea
London, UK (SPX) Dec 16, 2024
An international team of scientists, including a glaciologist from Newcastle University, has uncovered remarkably preserved glacial landforms buried nearly 1 km beneath the North Sea. The discovery offers key insights into the region's Ice Age history and its connection to climate change. Using advanced seismic technology, researchers revealed Ice Age features hidden beneath layers of sediment. These landforms, dating back approximately 1 million years, were formed when a massive ice sheet, center ... read more

ICE WORLD
3D printable bioreactor designs to support space nutrition

Washington, Beijing renew stalled scientific cooperation agreement

SpaceX to launch more private astronaut missions to ISS

U.S., India undertake strengthened space partnership

ICE WORLD
Japanese startup's space rocket launch fails

FAA issues License Authorization for SpaceX Starship Flight 7

Trump-Musk alliance should boost 'space economy'

SpaceX Launches SES O3b mPOWER Satellites to Expand Global Communications Network

ICE WORLD
NASA honours Algerian parks with Martian namesakes

Anthropologists urge preservation of human artifacts on Mars

New study questions the potential for liquid brines on Mars

NASA Outlines Latest Moon to Mars Plans in 2024 Architecture Update

ICE WORLD
Shenzhou XIX crew completes successful spacewalk outside Tiangong station

China boosts Lunar and Mars mission capabilities with advanced Long March rockets

Long March 12 set for inaugural launch from Hainan space center

China inflatable space capsule aces orbital test

ICE WORLD
NASA outlines long-term goals for human presence in low earth orbit

EU kickstarts satellite network to rival Musk's Starlink

Growing a business from mobile apps to space software with Proba-3

AST SpaceMobile and Vodafone sign long-term agreement for global connectivity

ICE WORLD
AI startup Databricks raises $10 bn as value soars

New type of quasiparticle discovered in magnetic materials

Stretchable, flexible, recyclable. This plastic is fantastic

China's Xi urges Macau to pivot from casinos as new leader sworn in

ICE WORLD
Living in the deep, dark, slow lane: Insights from the first global appraisal of microbiomes in Earth's subsurface environments

Does Trappist-1 b have an atmosphere after all

Planets form sequentially like falling dominos

Discovery of a planet with a shifting gas tail

ICE WORLD
Juno identifies localized magma chambers driving Io's volcanic activity

NASA marks ten years of Hubble's Outer Planets Survey

Magnetic tornado is stirring up the haze at Jupiter's poles

Uranus moons could hold clues to hidden oceans for future space missions

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.