Giant Psy Ice Sculpture Opens Harbin Festival

Chill Factor: YouTube's first billion-view artist has been memorialized in a very cool way in Harbin, China.

YouTube’s first-ever billion-view artist has become the first pop artist to be celebrated in a giant snow sculpture at the 2013 Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival.

A giant snow sculpture of Psy, standing nearly 30 feet high, depicts the S. Korean rapper astride the imaginary horse that has carried “Gangnam Style” to the top of the digital pop charts and various Billboard charts during the past three months.

The sculpture, located on a busy thoroughfare, is one of the first to be unveiled ahead of the official start of the festival which takes place annually in the city of Harbin in Heilongjian province in far northeastern China. An actor in a lime tuxedo and dark sunglasses was dancing the horse dance in front of the sculpture as a crowd gathered for its unveiling.

The festival has been a major tourist draw for Harbin since it was launched in 1963. An average winter temperature of -17 degrees celsius (1 degree farenheit) makes the city an ideal venue for an event built around ice and snow creations that must withstand midday sun through February 5 and beyond.

The festival features two main venues — Sun Island across the Songhua River from the city, featuring giant snow sculptures, and Ice and Snow World which opens nightly and features full-size illuminated buildings built with large blocks of crystal clear ice taken from the Songhua River.

The city’s parks also fill with ice lanterns for picturesque night tours, including the ice-lantern festival at Zhaolin Garden. Visitors can also participate in activities ranging from Yabuli alpine skiing to winter-swimming in the Songhua River.