Original subtitles

Narrator: In northeast china,

This team of elite engineers is embarking on an epic endeavor.

They're attempting to build an entire city

Made from just snow and ice.

It's huge. It's enormous.

There's nothing as big as this in the world.

Unbelievable.

Narrator: Spanning over eight million square feet

And made from a massive 110,000 tons of ice,

They are racing to complete this ambitious build

In just 15 days.

To construct this remarkable ice city,

The team must battle arctic temperatures

And dizzy heights.

♪

[ shouts indistinctly ]

Narrator: This incredible ice city

Ranks in a league of ambitious new engineering wonders

That are bigger, faster, taller, and more advanced

Than anything ever constructed before.

This is the inside story of the extraordinary challenge

Of building these giants.

♪

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Harbin, northeast china,

Home to over 10 million inhabitants.

Just 200 miles from the russian border,

It's one of the country's most northern cities.

During the winter months,

The arctic climate causes temperatures to plummet,

Freezing the mighty songhua river.

But these icy conditions

Create a unique opportunity for the people here

To construct a one of a kind ice megastructure.

For hundreds of years,

Local fishermen crafted makeshift lanterns

From the river ice to fish at night.

People started first to carving ice

For practical reasons, and then it became an art form.

And it requires a lot of skill, especially when you're working

At this scale.

♪

Narrator: This year, the team will push the boundaries

Of ice engineering.

They plan to construct 30 massive ice buildings.

At their center,

A huge double tower will be the tallest ice structure

Ever built.

The twin towers,

That is going to be something really amazing.

Narrator: This is the polar wonderland

They must build --

Five grand frozen palaces

Each with a unique design,

Tower over spectacular arch bridges

Made from solid ice,

A 23-foot high dome cast in the shape of a shell

Provides shelter for visitors from brutal arctic conditions.

♪

And at the heart of this city,

A grand curved double tower soaring 130 feet high.

It will be the tallest ice structure ever constructed.

And at night, lights built into the structures

Will create a dazzling, multicolor display.

♪

Tasked with turning these ambitious plans into a reality

Is head of development, yang zhi.

Incredibly, he has just 15 days

To build the entire city.

To do that, he has assembled an army of 10,000 workers

Operating in shifts 24 hours a day.

Building on this scale in such a limited timeframe

Is a monumental challenge.

Building one building otherwise in just 15 days,

That's difficult.

By building 30, that is crazy.

This is the plan.

First, workers will erect a 130-foot high skeleton

To support the enormous central double tower

And begin covering with 20,000 tons of ice,

Setting ribbons of led lights within each layer.

Meanwhile, five separate teams

Will construct the grand ice palaces

Carving the intricate exteriors as they go

And using wooden formwork,

They will build a one of a kind solid ice bridge

With a 10-foot high arch.

Another team will cover a giant inflatable mold

With a mix of paper and water to create a solid icy shell

For visitors to take shelter from the arctic temperatures.

Finally, they top out the central tower

Making it the tallest ice structure in the world.

♪

Work begins by sourcing their building material -- ice.

The man in charge of the massive ice

Harvesting operation is liu cai

Also known as the ice master.

♪

Each day, he checks the thickness

Of the ice on the songhua river.

It must be at least 12 inches thick

To meet the construction team's requirements.

♪

If it's not thick enough, the harvest cannot begin.

The city marks the start of the harvest

With a lavish traditional ceremony.

Thousands of people descend on the river

To witness the cutting of the first ice block.

It's a carnival on ice.

The first block they pulled from the river

Is just one of hundreds of thousands they need

To build this extraordinary ice city.

So the celebrations don't last long.

♪

Because of the tight schedule,

The team must provide over 10,000 tons of ice per day.

♪

To keep up with this demand,

They have to use more than just manpower.

♪

This is their plan.

First, workers use giant two-foot circular saws

To slice halfway through the one-foot thick ice...

♪

...This creates a vast checkerboard of blocks

That are still attached at the base

So the team can continue safely moving across the ice.

Next, workers break off the ice blocks one by one

And float them down the river.

Here, a specialized crane hoists the blocks out of the water

And onto a metal chute.

Once the ice blocks are safely away from the water's edge,

Forklifts move in and lift them onto a waiting fleet of trucks.

♪

♪

Over 200 harvesters work in shifts 24 hours a day

To keep up with demand.

They operate on vast ice fields

That stretch as far as the eye can see,

Just one of dozens along the river

Needed to supply enough ice for construction.

This is not for the faint of heart.

The harvesters work precariously close to the water's edge

Chipping and breaking away the ice by hand.

[ speaking indistinctly ]

Narrator: One slip would send them

Plunging into the icy river below.

♪

With the ice in position, they fire up the harvest machine

And feed in first block.

♪

They soon load up the waiting fleet of trucks

And the ice is transported from the river.

♪

With a steady flow of ice to the site,

They gear up for their biggest challenge --

Building the enormous double tower.

♪

♪

Narrator: In northern china,

A team of engineers is attempting

To build an entire city made from just snow and ice.

They have only 15 days to complete this record breaking

Ice engineering project.

Now, work begins on the complex centerpiece

For the frozen city --

The double tower.

It will be one of the most ambitious structures

Ever constructed from ice.

Yet, ice alone is not strong enough

To support a tower of this size.

Yang zhi and his team must find a way to reinforce this giant

Or else the tower could come crashing down.

♪

If they made this tower from just ice,

It would sway and collapse

In a brutal winter winds.

So first, engineers bolt giant steel girders

To foundations set into the ground.

Next, they use a crane to place more and more steel

Sections on top,

Creating two super strong 130-foot high cores

That should support the entire structure.

They quickly install the lower half

Of the steel skeleton.

But before they can cover it in ice,

They have to install this massive

50-foot high section of steel

And they'll be doing it in the dark.

Overseeing the lift is tower construction manager

Deng fuchang.

Tonight, his team must work through a bone-chilling

Minus 4 degrees fahrenheit.

As the temperature continues to drop, they begin to lift.

♪

♪

There isn't much space up high,

So deng fuchang must watch from the ground.

[ speaking foreign language ]

♪

♪

Narrator: Up top, two workers guide it into position,

They must ensure all the legs align perfectly with the base,

Then bolt it securely into place.

But something isn't going quite right.

One of the legs won't line up correctly.

This team has to finish the skeleton tonight

In order to stay on schedule.

They strap ratchets to the second tower

And attempt to pull the leg into alignment

Inch by inch.

♪

It's slow progress.

♪

But eventually,

They managed to get the leg perfectly aligned.

The next day, the team makes fast progress

Covering the skeleton with thousands of ice blocks,

But as they build higher,

They can't simply stack the ice around the steel skeleton.

They need to find a way to securely attach

The ice blocks to the steel core

Else they risk seeing their hard work crash to the ground.

♪

To support the tower,

They stack blocks of ice around the core

And fill the hollow space in the middle

With broken ice rubble.

They then cover this rubble with water.

This freezes solid,

Tying the steel to the blocks around it,

Keeping this vast structure standing strong.

Team uses broken and discarded ice blocks

From all over the site to fill the core of the towers.

Dozens of workers move in to pack the ice

As tightly as possible.

Any large gaps could be a point of weakness.

Finally, they add the water.

In the arctic temperatures, it freezes quickly,

Locking the blocks together.

With the ice securely attached to the skeleton,

The tower will now stand up to even the most brutal winds

And a team can continue pushing upwards.

♪

Meanwhile, at the other end of the site,

Another team begins tackling a unique challenge --

Sculpting a giant 88-foot high buddha

Carved from solid snow.

♪

♪

Narrator: Harbin, northern china,

An army of 10,000 workers

Is building a vast city made from ice in just 15 days.

♪

Work has begun on an 88-foot high buddha

Made from solid snow.

Overseeing this mammoth carving

Is master sculptor, sun jian.

[ speaking foreign language ]

♪

Narrator: To shape this monumental sculpture,

Teams of master carvers use just two simple tools.

[ chainsaw whirring ]

First, chainsaws rough out the shape

And remove the bulk of the material.

♪

Next, they use a sharp shaving tool

To carve out the fine details.

♪

Carving snow, the sharpness of the tools is very important.

It's like carving in a soft white marble.

Narrator: The scale of this build has sun jian worried.

So, he creates a plan.

First, he divides this sculpture into manageable sized blocks.

The team then works on one square

Before moving on to the next.

But for the sculptors working up close,

It's impossible to see the bigger picture

So they need help from the ground.

Up top, the carvers are in constant communication

With the team on the ground

Working slowly and methodically to make sure

They don't make any mistakes.

Over the next 10 hours,

Buddha begins to emerge from the snow,

But they still have a long way to go.

Sun jian and his team must work around the clock

If they are to be ready in time for opening.

♪

Across the rest of the site,

The construction crew is working in overdrive.

The central tower is quickly rising

And the team has started work on the five glacial palaces,

Making progress on the walls.

One palace has a unique feature

That will push the limits of ice engineering,

A 10-foot high arched bridge

Made from nothing but solid blocks of ice.

The bridge will have to support thousands of visitors

Walking across it.

So construction will call on the most skilled ice builders

On the project.

This is their plan --

First, workers must build a wooden mold

That forms a template for the arch

And crane it into place at the base of the bridge.

Next, skilled carvers cut blocks of ice

To precisely the right shape to form an arch...

♪

...And stack them along the formwork

Adding a second layer for extra strength.

The team constructs the steps that lead up to the bridge,

Followed by the walkway on top.

Only then can they remove the formwork

And put this marvel of ice engineering to the test.

♪

They use wooden templates to mark out the blocks.

This ensures that each block is exactly the right shape

Before they cut it.

When you're building an arch with ice blocks,

You have to have, you know, the perfect size,

The perfect angles of the blocks,

And then also the perfect surfaces.

Narrator: Lifting each of the 180-pound blocks into place

Is backbreaking work.

And it's all done by hand.

As they complete each row, they must secure the next.

To do this, they use a special spiked tool

To roughen up the surface,

Then stack the next row of blocks on top.

♪

Now they pour water over the ice,

Which trickles between the rows.

When the water freezes,

It acts like cement locking into the roughened surfaces

To make the ice blocks one solid piece.

Over the next five hours,

They make steady progress working into the night.

♪

But once they reach the top, they notice a problem.

The space left for the keystone is not the right shape.

It has square sides like a brick.

For the arch to hold strong,

Every single block must be shaped like a wedge.

The team works through the night to fix the problem.

They removed dozens of blocks and shaved them down.

♪

The next day,

The keystone is in place

And the bridge is back on schedule.

They quickly complete the rest of the bridge.

They add in the steps and walkway.

Now it's ready for

The ultimate test of their work --

Removing the formwork.

If the bridge doesn't hold,

The site won't be ready in time for opening day.

♪

♪

Narrator: Harbin, china,

Thousands of workers here are building a vast city

Made entirely of ice.

With just eight days until opening to the public,

The team has finished constructing a unique ice bridge

That should be strong enough for people to walk over.

Now they must remove the wooden formwork

Used to support the arch during construction.

But they must work carefully.

If any of the blocks are not set correctly, they could fall free.

First, they cut the wooden supports to loosen the formwork,

Paying close attention to the ice above them.

If the arch doesn't hold,

It could seriously injure the workers below.

With each wooden support they cut,

More and more weight transfers to the bridge.

♪

With one final pull,

They haul it clear.

After a final smooth and polish,

This masterpiece of ice engineering is complete.

♪

♪

Across the site, the ice city is rising fast.

♪

The snow carvers are making headway

With the 88-foot high buddha.

♪

And work on the ice palace roofs has begun.

But building with ice is only half the story.

The final city will only truly come alive

Once the ice is lit.

Lighting the harbin ice city,

That is huge challenge a huge job.

It's so amazing because there is light

Everywhere in between every layer of ice everywhere

There's light.

Narrator: Zhang yao oversees the lighting installation.

This is one of the biggest jobs on the site.

♪

Workers must light every single block from within.

♪

To do this,

First, they use chainsaws to cut special channels on the ice.

♪

Then they lay more than 120 miles of custom-built

Led cable inside

And use wooden pins to secure the lights in place.

Finally, they pack snow on top.

The led strips wind around and around each structure

To illuminate every single block.

Each strip can glow red, blue, or green.

♪

When complete, the whole city will be a multi-color marvel.

♪

For the ice to look its best,

The thin light strips have to

Fill the whole block of ice with light.

♪

Zhang yao has developed

A special technique to do just that.

Instead, they install the lights facing backwards.

Installing the lights this way allows the team

To illuminate the structures with a bright, even glow.

♪

To install the 120 miles of lighting in such a short time,

Zhang yao oversees a team of over 500 electricians.

They must work in perfect tandem with the ice builders.

As each row is complete,

The electricians move in to install the light strips.

Once they've finished, the ice builders lay the next row.

♪

The two teams gradually work up the structures,

Bringing them to life with a spectacular glow.

♪

The team now has just six days until opening.

Next, they will have to tackle

One of their most technical builds on the whole site --

A giant 23-foot high ice dome.

♪

♪

Narrator: In harbin, china,

The team building the world's biggest ice city

Is over halfway through their 15-day build.

♪

The palaces now have roofs.

And the giant buddha's body is emerging from the snow.

Yang zhi's army of 10,000 workers

Races around the clock,

Laying thousands of tons of ice.

♪

But not all the structures across the site

Will be made from blocks of ice.

This vast dome will become the city's restaurant and bar

A place for visitors to escape the cold.

Yang zhi's team has developed a pioneering

New ice building technique

To build this huge soaring roof.

♪

They'll build their dome using a giant inflatable mold

As the base.

Next, they could spray the outside with water,

Which would freeze to form a hard shell,

Building up the thickness over several days,

One layer at a time.

But the dome will be a massive 50 feet across.

Pure ice is not strong enough to support its own weight.

So when they deflate the supporting mold,

The brittle shell could crack

Or even collapse.

♪

At the nearby harbin institute of technology.

Professor of structural design, arno pronk,

Works on a solution.

A super strong ice composite called pykrete.

The cellulose fibers help knit the ice together,

Making a composite that is three times stronger than ice alone.

This material is ideally suited to making large dome structures.

At the site,

Professor peng luo mixes paper and water in vats

To create the pykrete.

The paper dissolves in the water to create a mash.

♪

Peng luo's team then sprays this mixture

Onto the inflatable mold

One thin layer at a time

Allowing each layer to freeze before spraying the next.

♪

As it freezes, it forms an icy shell

Knitted together with paper fibers.

But will this vast structure hold up when they remove

The inflatable support below?

After several days of spraying,

It's the moment of truth for peng luo and his team.

♪

The team switches off the pumps and quickly clears

The inside of the dome.

For peng luo, it is an anxious moment.

Over the next two hours,

The air pressure drops

And the inflatable slowly falls away.

Peng luo moves in to inspect the shell.

♪

The next day, they remove the inflatable.

[ shouting indistinctly ]

Narrator: Working carefully to not damage the frozen covering

The end result is an elegant, soaring shell

Unlike any other ice structure.

A cavernous space that will make the perfect shelter

For the city's thousands of visitors.

♪

But the team now has just three days until opening.

Before the first guests arrive, workers face one last

Treacherous challenge --

Placing the final blocks

Precariously on the top of their double tower

130 feet above the ground

To make it the tallest ice structure in the world.

♪

♪

Narrator: In harbin, northeast china

Workers building this colossal ice city

Are on the final stretch.

They have nearly finished the stunning ice palaces.

But they have yet to set the final blocks

On their most ambitious build --

The enormous double tower.

♪

To install the final two rows of ice,

The team has to work 130 feet in the air.

And it's not just the height they need to worry about.

As their tower has grown taller,

Their working area has shrunk,

It's now just 20 feet across

Leaving no room for mistakes.

♪

They begin to lift the final blocks.

♪

The crew guides the crane to just the right position,

But they must work carefully when unloading.

One false move and the 450-pound block

Could crash down through the scaffolding

130 feet to the ground below.

♪

They carefully edge the block into place.

With the ice in position,

Sculptors move in to shape and level it

Ready for the final capstone.

♪

But suddenly, the weather takes a turn.

A snow storm moves in.

If conditions get any worse.

They'll have to abandon the lift.

♪

♪

The team quickly unloads the bucket.

With one final effort,

They wrangled the last block into place.

All that's left to do is shape and polish the ice.

♪

It's a big moment for the whole site.

♪

♪

♪

With the tower fully built,

The team undergoes one final effort

To get the site ready in time for opening.

♪

They take down cranes

And scaffolding

And put the finishing touches on dozens

Of stunning ice statues

Working late into the night.

♪

It's opening day at the ice city

And silence falls across the site.

♪

The beautiful frozen palaces and dome are complete...

♪

...And the meticulously carved buddha stands proud

Overlooking the site.

At the center,

The giant 130-foot high towers soar over the landscape.

♪

All that's left to do is open the gates.

But before they welcome the first visitors,

They wait for sunset

So the ice will look its best.

♪

As day turns to night, the ice city comes to life.

For someone who has never been to the ice city,

It must be astonishing to go into this world of ice.

Narrator: Thousands of visitors pour in to catch a first glimpse

Of the breathtaking views.

It's quite mesmerizing when you see it.

It's really amazing.

Narrator: In just 15 days,

This team of dedicated ice builders

Has transformed an empty plot of land

Into a spectacular ice city

For thousands to enjoy.

Oh, it's really awesome and very beautiful.

♪

♪

♪