Ice Miners

While the Yudu Mountain Scenic Area was closed for winter, workers rose early on mornings in late December and braved temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius to mine ice on Wangyou Lake at the foot of Yudu Mountain in Beijing’s Yanqing District.

Cooperating with Nature

Buzzing electric saws foretold the sound of cracking ice as the workers sliced it like butter in a silver blur of snowy dust. With their heavy exhaled breaths visible, the workers then divided into groups of three or four to drag the big ice cubes out of the water.

The workers repeated the steps over and over until the sun set. After the ice cubes were cut into square-meter pieces 35 centimeters thick, they were loaded for transportation to the Longqing Gorge Scenic Area 12 kilometers away to be carved into ice lanterns in various artistic styles.

At the upper reach of the Longqing Gorge, the Yudu Mountain Scenic Area enjoys a unique microclimate featuring low temperatures, high humidity, and a wide day-night temperature difference. Beijing’s winter starts there as the brooks-feeding crystal-clear Wangyou Lake freezes over. Around December 20 every year, the thickness of the ice on Wangyou Lake reaches 35 to 40 centimeters, making it a favorite place to retrieve ice cubes for the annual Longqing Gorge Ice Lantern Art Festival. Thanks to the quality water of the lake, lanterns made from the ice are particularly glittery and translucent and melt slower.

Guo Xianmin, 60, spent his entire morning on the lake. His job was to haul the ice blocks out of the water alongside two other older men. He had a break while waiting for pieces to be cut. Guo took out a cigarette, lit it, and offered one to every colleague around him. In the winter sunshine, the white smoke left distinct tracks as it wafted up into the sky.

From Beiliang Village in Yanqing, Guo and 10 other villagers drove 15 minutes to reach the lake in the early morning. This was Guo’s second year on the job. His expertise at boiler operation and maintenance became obsolete when all the villages started using electricity for heating instead of coal. According to Guo, he can earn about 6,000 yuan (US$950) during the 20-day ice-picking season. “If I didn’t work on this, I would just stay at home,” he grinned. “It’s nice to earn some money to buy alcohol for the upcoming Spring Festival. The ice-picking process is environmentally-friendly. I’ll come next year if I can.”

Serving the Olympics

Its proximity to the Yanqing competition zone of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics made an Olympic theme for this year’s Longqing Gorge Ice Lantern Art Festival a no-brainer. This year’s selection of ice lanterns, colored lanterns, and laser lamps fully captured the Olympic spirit and ice and snow culture for visitors. Dating back to 1987, the festival has been held 36 times. To celebrate Yanqing’s hosting of many Winter Olympic events, the scale of this year’s festival expanded, requiring more ice than usual. The pressure fell on Li Shisuo, responsible for recruiting workers for the ice-picking project.

In stark contrast to relaxed Guo, Li frowned while monitoring the progress of ice-picking and the ice quality to guarantee the thickness and transparency of the ice blocks. To be suitable for lantern carving, ice must be smoothly intact and complete without broken parts, so transporting the pieces takes immense care. Now 64, Li has been engaged in the ice-picking business for 33 years. This year, he estimated that they would need to collect 14,000 to 15,000 ice cubes, and prepare another 4,000 to 5,000 pieces for back-up.

Collecting ice from the lake leaves it up to nature to determine the quality and thickness of the ice, which only exacerbated the pressure on Li. Lanterns made of natural ice are superior, stronger, and sturdier, not to mention the lower cost and greater environmental friendliness than artificial ice. On the lake, Li lift the cubes onto a motorcycle cart while talking with his workers. After the three-wheeler was fully loaded, he drove it and zoomed off the lake.

The materials were sent to Longqing Gorge, where workers cut them with special saws into appropriate sizes according to blueprints before polishing and piling them. They were glued together with water—just a spray between cubes created an impressively strong bond. With exquisite craftsmanship, the carvers sculpted beautiful ice lanterns with electric saws and polishers.

On January 15, the 2022 Longqing Gorge Ice Lantern Art Festival kicked off. Against the cliffs in the valley, chains of lanterns accented 500 ice-made structures, 350 ice sculptures, 16 snow sculpture sets, and thousands of other ice lanterns in a sea of glimmering lights.