The first ice lantern festival was held in Zhaolin Park in 1963. It became an annual tradition, with sculptures eventually supplanting lanterns, though the festival halted for several years during the Cultural Revolution. The event was so popular that it inspired two larger copycat ice and snow festivals on the outskirts of town.

首次兆麟公园冰灯节于1963年举行，自此之后变成每年的传统（雕刻渐渐取代了冰灯），在文化大革命时间断过。这个活动如此受欢迎，它带动了郊区另外两个更大的冰灯节的举行。

The one in Zhaolin Park is now in its 35th season, and it is a far cry from the days of candles flickering in ice lanterns. The Cinderella castle has an escalator running up and an ice slide running down. The entire park glows pink and blue and yellow from neon tubes in the sculptures. A Ferris wheel dominates the skyline.

这是兆麟公园的第三十五届冰灯节，冰块里闪烁的烛光已成为历史遥远的记忆。灰姑娘的城堡里，自动扶梯慢慢攀升，冰滑梯顺势直下。整个公园沉浸在冰雕内粉蓝黄的氖灯光里，摩天轮划过天际。

The Disney sculptures were created over a two-week period. Workers began hauling chunks of ice out of the Songhua River on Dec. 6. At the start, when the ice is thinner, the blocks weigh more than 850 pounds. As the ice thickens during the winter, the blocks can weigh up to twice that.

迪士尼雕塑的完成花了超过两周的时间。工人们自12月6号就开始从松花江里搬运冰块。这时候，冰还比较薄，但也超过850磅。随着冰在严冬里逐渐变厚，冰块可以变成原来的两倍大。

A ticket costs $15, almost double what it was last year. That is expensive by Chinese standards, but the festival is still a big draw, with an average of 3,000 attendees per day. On a recent night, when temperatures dipped below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, thousands of people streamed in.

门票15美元，几乎是去年的两倍。这对中国人来说算是比较昂贵了，但是冰灯节深得人心，平均每天约有3,000名游客前来游玩。最近某个晚上，当温度达到零下4华氏度时（-20℃，译者注），数千人鱼贯而入。

“This is beautiful,” said Li Jing, 22, a university student wearing fake cat ears who posed for a photo beneath a picture of Tigger on an ice wall. “It brings my childhood memories back. I watched a lot of cartoons when I was young, like Winnie the Pooh.”

“这些太美了，”22岁的大学生李静（音译）说，她戴着假猫耳朵与一只冰墙上的跳跳虎合影。“这让我找回了儿时的回忆，小时候我看了很多像维尼熊之类的动画片。”

People coming to see more Chinese-themed sculptures now have to go to one of the two festivals north of the city, both run by the government or a state-owned enterprise. The older of the two was founded 15 years ago and has giant snow sculptures — a central piece this year is a replica of the Olympic stadium known as the Bird’s Nest. The other festival, The World of Ice and Snow, is only 10 years old, but has become the biggest and most popular of the three.

想要看到更多中国主题的冰雕，就要选择城市北部另外两个冰灯节之一了。那两个都是政府或者国有企业主办的。其中一个建立于15年前，有巨型冰雕——今年的压轴作品是奥林匹克体育场，也就是众所周知的鸟巢。另外一个——冰天雪地，仅仅建立了10年，但是已经成为三个中最大也最受欢迎的一个。

The same size as Tiananmen Square, it is several times larger than the one in Zhaolin Park. It took 12,500 people to create the sculptures. It has soaring ice cathedrals with flashing lights, a gargantuan snow Buddha and an outdoor skating musical with an actor dressed as Uncle Sam.

与天安门广场的面积相同，它比兆麟公园的冰灯节规模大得多。12,500人参与冰雕的制作。其中，带着闪烁灯光的冰雕大教堂与日俱增。公园里还有一座大型的冰雕佛陀和户外溜冰音乐剧，演员着装颇似山姆大叔。