An international ice and snow festival, jointly sponsored by Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, and the Japanese city of Sapporo, opened Saturday.

The venue of the month-long festival is situated at Qipan Mountain on the eastern suburbs of Shenyang, where there is also a big lake. Apart from entertaining performances on ice, visitors may also view snow and ice sculptures, go skiing or skating, said organizers.

According to the organizers, 300 snow sculptures have been ready for the festival, with 620,000 cubic meters of snow being used. The snow sculpture featuring Potala Palace, one of the most well known shrines for Tibetan Buddhism located in Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, is the biggest of all and an art work of 12,800 cubic meters of snow.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2005)