Despite Nasty Spill, A Chinese City Says Ice Show Will Go On
Fouled Waters, Angry Russians
Don't Spoil Festival Plans;
Search for 30,000 Tons
HARBIN, China -- Just south of Siberia here, a strange Russian tableau has sprung up. There's a statue of Lenin, a replica of the summer palace in St. Petersburg, and a mock Red Square, all made out of ice.
Frigid Harbin is carrying on with its popular ice festivities, despite conditions that could make a tourism director flee to warmer climes. The northern Chinese city is just getting over a horrific chemical spill, and people in Russia -- whose culture is being celebrated at this year's events -- are angry at Harbin for sending fouled waters their way.
"You can't hide this pollution problem. We admitted it was there. But it will not impact our work," says Zhu Xiaodong, organizer of the annual Ice Lantern Festival, which officially begins this week and lasts about a month.
That festival and a number of other ice events in Harbin have become an unlikely tourist hit in recent years. They draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, even though temperatures can dip to 40 degrees below zero.
In November, an explosion at a chemical plant spilled benzene into the Songhua River, which runs past Harbin. The city was forced to shut off its water supplies for five days, and the benzene flowed into the Amur River and past the Russian city of Khabarovsk in Siberia. China's top leaders had to apologize to Russia.
The episode turned Harbin into a symbol of China's environmental woes. Nonetheless, the city has gone ahead with its festivities and their long-planned theme: Sino-Russian friendship.
Mr. Zhu's biggest immediate need in the wake of the spill was 30,000 tons of safe frozen water. "I could barely sleep -- my mind was racing. But I didn't consider canceling," he recalls. Fortunately, his team uses ice from a tributary of the Songhua, not from the river itself, and after several days of tests the water was declared safe to use.
Harbin's chemical spill threatens China's $27 billion tourist industry just as the Bali terror bombings hurt Indonesia and the tsunami a year ago damaged Thailand, says Yin Min, president of the Academy of Tourism Development at Beijing International Studies University. Outside Harbin, other Chinese attractions face trouble from environmental woes. Xian, home of the famous terra-cotta warriors, often smells from the coal-burning cooking fires and power plants that keep its skies gray. A giant dam project is undoing one of China's best-known natural attractions, the Three Gorges.
Last month, a second spill at a zinc smelter threatened water supplies in the huge metropolis of Guangzhou, which receives many business travelers.
For Harbin, the ice festival is big business, providing 5% of the city's annual income, according to the provincial government. Since 1963, the city has played host to international ice and snow-carving competitions in the city center and along the banks of the Songhua. Only during the decade-long chaos of the Cultural Revolution did the festivities get shut down.
Visitors are urged to buy thickly padded long johns and the toasty warm boots the locals wear. Drivers compare the roads to ice-skating rinks.
Before the spill, city officials had hoped to attract a million visitors, about 20% more than last year. Now that looks difficult. Tourist agencies say the number of Russians coming to the festival has fallen compared with last year, when extra rail cars had to be added to handle the crush coming south.
"The foreigners don't believe the government. The foreigners will come back once they hear the experts' opinion," says Jia Jihai, who owns a bar called USABucks. "Usually, this place is packed. But look, it's empty now." His bar is lined with thousands of American license plates, beer coasters and pages from Life magazine. Mr. Jia continues to use only bottled mineral water at home for cooking and drinking.
Mr. Zhu, the Ice Lantern Festival organizer, has spent much of his time trying to reassure tourist agencies and the public that now is a good time to visit Harbin.
At his festival, three thousand workers have put together an elaborate show with ice sculptures of Russian churches and monkey kings from China's classic novels. There are also delicate carvings of swans, dragons, lions and laughing Buddhas.
Across the river at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival, another one of Harbin's ice events, visitors recently inched across a vast ice Red Square lit from below in red, yellow and blue. Ahead was the Kremlin and to the right a 660-foot-long ice slide for the daring. Loudspeakers blasted Chinese-language versions of Russian classics. A handful of fur-clad Russians tottered about.
Tio Waluyo Setiono, a tour guide from Jakarta leading 19 Indonesians across China, said his group was concerned about the pollution, but decided to come anyway. "I went to Jordan after the bombings there. I went to Jerusalem," he said. "I could be killed crossing the street. I'm not afraid."
冰雪盛会依旧 污染顾虑尤存
2006年01月05日16:05
在西伯利亚正南方的哈尔滨，出现了一处奇怪的俄罗斯风情景观，这里有列宁雕像、有圣彼得堡的沙皇夏宫、还有红场，而所有这一切都是用冰块制成的。
虽然哈尔滨的寒冷天气可能促使人们选择到更加温暖的其它地方旅游，但这里一年一度的冰雪节依然如期拉开了帷幕。这座中国北方城市刚刚经历了一次可怕的化学品泄漏事件，污染物还随江水流向了俄罗斯，让俄罗斯人十分不满，不过，俄罗斯风情恰恰正是今年冰雪节的一个主题。
今年冰灯节的组织者朱晓东表示，污染问题是无法回避的，我们也承认出现了这样的事件，但它不会影响我们的工作。冰雪节本周正式开幕，将持续一个月的时间。
近年来，哈尔滨的冰雪节以及其他与冰雪有关的活动出人意料地成为了旅游的热点，每年，数十万游客不顾零下40度的寒冷天气到来这里观赏冰雪美景。
去年11月份，一家化工厂发生爆炸，大量的苯被泄漏到流经哈尔滨市的松花江里，导致哈尔滨被迫停水5天，受污染的江水还汇入了阿穆尔河，流向俄罗斯位于西伯利亚的城市哈巴罗夫斯克。中国政府领导人已就此事向俄罗斯道歉。
这一事件使哈尔滨变成了中国环境污染事故的焦点。不管怎样，今年的哈尔滨冰雪节依然如期举行了，很久以前就确定的中俄友谊的主题也没有改变。
由于苯泄漏事件的发生，朱晓东最感头痛的就是如何获得3万吨未被污染的冰块。“我晚上几乎都睡不著觉，脑子里在不停地想事情，不过我从未考虑过放弃。”他回忆道。幸运的是，他的团队从离松花江干流不远处的一个支流取到了冰块，经过几天的检测，确定了这些冰块是安全的。
北京第二外国语学院(Beijing International Studies University)旅游发展研究院院长殷敏表示，哈尔滨化学品泄漏事件威胁到了中国总规模为270亿美元的旅游市场，就如巴厘岛爆炸事件损害了印尼的旅游业、一年前的海啸摧毁了泰国的旅游市场一样。在中国其他城市，环境污染问题也给旅游业带来了负面影响。在以兵马俑扬名天下的西安市，空气里经常弥漫著煤炭燃烧后的气味，天空总是灰蒙蒙地一片。三峡大坝水利项目正在让中国最著名自然景观之一──三峡美景逐渐消失。
上月，中国一个锌冶炼厂再次发生泄漏事件，威胁到了广州市的正常供水。作为中国重要的经济中心之一，广州每天要接待大量的商务旅行者。
冰雪节是哈尔滨一项重要的活动，据省政府的数据，哈尔滨市的年收入中有5%来自冰雪节。自1963年以来，哈尔滨几乎每年都在市中心和松花江沿岸举办国际冰雕比赛，只在文化大革命期间中断过数年。
游客们被鼓动著购买加厚的棉衣裤和暖和的棉鞋，就象当地人一样。司机把哈尔滨的街道路面比喻成了溜冰场。
在水污染事故发生前，哈尔滨市政府的官员曾希望今年的冰雪节能吸引100万游客，较上年增加20%以上。但现在看来这一目标将很难达到。旅行社表示，来冰灯节参观的俄罗斯游客数量较上年有所下降，当时大量俄罗斯游客蜂拥而至，铁路客运列车不得不加挂车厢来增加运力。
贾济海（音）是一家名为USABucks的酒吧的老板，他说，“俄罗斯人并不相信中国政府，只有专家的意见才能让他们重新回来。通常这里都挤满了人，而现在，看看，到处都是空荡荡的。”他的酒吧里挂满了数千个美国汽车牌照、啤酒杯垫以及从《生活杂志》(Life)上弄下来的图片。无论是做饭和饮用，贾济海现在依然只用瓶装矿泉水。
冰雪节的组织者朱晓东用了大量的时间试图说服旅行社和公众，让他们相信现在是来哈尔滨旅游的大好时机。
在冰灯节三千名工作人员的努力下，一个个做工精制的冰雕作品呈现在人们眼前，有俄罗斯教堂、中国古典小说中的孙悟空，还有天鹅、龙、狮子和弥勒佛等。
河对面是另一个与冰雪有关的活动──哈尔滨冰雪节。在这里，游客们小心翼翼地穿过宽阔的冰雕红场，冰下面点缀著红、黄、蓝三色彩灯。前面是克里姆林宫，右边是为勇敢者准备的660英尺长的冰雪滑道。扩音器里播放的是中文版的俄罗斯经典歌曲。几个穿著皮大衣的俄罗斯人正在踉踉跄跄地走著。
来自雅加达的Tio Waluyo Setiono是一位导游，他带领著由19名印尼人组成的旅游团来到中国旅游。他说，他的团员对于水污染事件非常担心，但最后还是决定来了。“我在约旦爆炸事件发生后就去了那里，并且还去了耶路撒冷，我在那里的街头有可能被打死，但我并不害怕。”
