Too cold for crops, so it鈥檚 time to 鈥榟arvest鈥 the ice
Print Edition
Liu Yantao and six co-workers start toiling on a frozen river in the northeast China before dawn, using hand tools and machines to carve large ice blocks for an annual winter sculpture festival.
Liu and his team are among more than 100 people who work on the Songhua River to harvest the 170,000 cubic meters of ice bricks needed this year 鈥 enough to fill 70 Olympic swimming pools.
Every year, a worker slips into the frigid water.
But that鈥檚 a risk farmers are willing to take to earn extra money during the harsh winter by harvesting the pieces used to make crystal palaces and sculptures at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival.
Liu鈥檚 team cuts out 2,000 pieces of ice every day for about three weeks, arriving before sunrise and leaving after sunset.
The farmers, who grow corn and soybeans the rest of the year, earn 2.5 yuan (US$0.35) for each of the 1.6-meter-long, 400-kilogram rectangles of ice they produce for the festival, which will open before the New Year.
They each make around 500 yuan per day. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing to do in the winter. People play mahjong at home. I don鈥檛 like gambling, so I work,鈥 says Liu, a 36-year-old father of one.
鈥淭here are years of tradition in building an ice scene in my hometown,鈥 the chain-smoking farmer says. 鈥淚f I don鈥檛 do it, I will feel lost.鈥
Liu has been mining ice for more than a decade. He is the team leader among a group of farmers who drive from Harbin鈥檚 countryside to arrive at the river before 5am every morning.
Resembling farmers ploughing a field, they use a large motorized saw to cut the icy surface into 220-meter-long, 190-meter-wide grids.
They slice the area into rectangles until the surface looks like a bar of ice chocolate.
Then, using large picks, the seven workers rhythmically stab at the ice down the line to separate the enormous block from the rest of the frozen river.
One by one, the crystal bricks are lifted onto a conveyor belt and picked up by a forklift that takes them to wait trucks.
The workers don鈥檛 talk much during the day but they can see their breath in the minus18 degrees Celsius weather.
They stand at the edge of ice holes several meters deep. Even forklifts have fallen in the river in the past. Orange life-jackets are nearby but nobody wears them.
鈥淚f you fall down, you will be pulled out by your companions,鈥 Liu says, lighting up yet another cigarette.
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