Macao opens indoor ice sculpture exhibition for summer fun

Guests host the opening ceremony of the Ice World With The DreamWorks All-stars exhibition in Macao, south China, March 16, 2017. (Xinhua/Cheong Kam Ka)

MACAO, March 17 -- Macao has opened an indoor frozen wonderland with cartoon ice sculptures for visitors to experience a snow world in spring and summer.

It may have been a chilly minus 8 degrees Celsius, but that did not cool the enthusiasm of scores of visitors at the opening ceremony of the ice sculpture event.

The opening ceremony saw enthusiastic children performing Kung Fu under the cartoon image Kung Fu Panda at Macao's Venetian, where the exhibition opened to the public on Thursday and will last to July 9.

Supported by the tourism office of the government of the Macao Special Administrative Region, it has been the fifth year to hold the ice sculpture exhibition.

The event saw thousands of blocks of multicolored ice skillfully carved into amazingly detailed sculptures by around 40 highly skilled craftsmen from the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin.

An amazing 2.5 million pounds (1.13 million kilograms) of ice was used to create the fantastic works of frozen art.

This year's exhibition includes a host of colorful DreamWorks animation characters from "Kung Fu Panda," "Madagascar," "Shrek," "How To Train Your Dragon," "The Croods" and "Trolls."

In addition to the seven ice sculpture zones, new additions including themed games and savory snacks, as well as character meet-and-greets make this year's Ice World an experience that can not be missed, the organizer explained.

"We work hard to bring our visitors of all ages a wide variety of exciting and diverse entertainment options here, and this year's Kung Fu Panda Adventure Ice World with the DreamWorks All-Stars represents one of the biggest family events in Macao," one organizer of the event Dave Horton said.

"In creating these ice sculptures we used approximately 6,000 ice blocks, equivalent to 1,250 tons, which required 300 hours of crafting to complete," Bai Wei, general manager of a sculpture company from Harbin, told Xinhua.

He hoped everyone would have a spectacular experience at the world-class ice craft art show.