Ice cutters’ income melts like snow in the sun

On the bank of a frozen river in northeast China, the hoarse voices of workers struggle to cover the roar of an imposing oxidized conveyor belt, on which blocks of ice are floated. Every winter, dozens of workers brave polar temperatures to cut ice from the wide Songhua River and then deliver it to the suburbs of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province.

These blocks are then transformed into monumental sculptures displayed at the city’s Ice Sculpture Festival, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.

But this year, the ice is thinner than usual, the fault of a milder autumn which delayed the frost. “At this time of year, the ice is normally 57 or 58 centimeters thick,” Huang Wu, 52, an ice cutter for twenty years, told AFP. But “this year, the thickness is only 44 or 45 centimeters,” he adds during his break on the river bank, bathed in a pink morning glow at the beginning of December.

Like the rest of his eight-man team, Huang Wu is a fisherman, but he trades his net for an ice pick as soon as the river freezes. In a straight line on the frozen river sprinkled with snow, the eight partners, dressed in orange life jackets and large work boots, cut 1.6 meter long slabs to the rhythm of the count chanted by one of the men.

The group earns about two yuan (0.24 francs) per block and can produce up to 2,700 during each arduous 16-hour shift, says Huang Wu, adding that they share the profits equally. This year, the reduction in ice thickness has already affected their income. “If the ice is thick, you make more money. If it is thin, we earn less,” he explains to AFP.

Once cut, the pristine, glistening blocks are hoisted onto a motorized ramp which transports them to forklifts. They are then driven by trucks to the festival location, a five-minute drive away. Highlighted sculptures in recent years include a monumental palace, a tricolor snowflake and replicas of the Terracotta Army – one of China’s most famous archaeological sites. All the sculptures are illuminated in bright colors after dark.

These works delight tourists, but Huang Wu believes that he has already “seen enough” ice to last a lifetime. This year, the frigid air, which freezes passing visitors, seems almost too mild for these local workers, accustomed to more extreme temperatures. Daytime temperatures in Harbin easily reach -20 degrees in early December. But this year, this level is only reached during the night, notes Huang Wu.

Climate change has caused extreme heatwaves in many parts of the world in recent months and Europe’s Copernicus Observatory says it is “certain” that 2024 will be the hottest year on record.

For others, however, these mild temperatures provide welcome comfort from the harsh winters of northeast China. “When the wind blows, no one can stand it,” said Zhu Weizhong, a novice ice cutter. “When it’s cold, we suffer.” This father of three children, farmer and worker in the maintenance of public spaces for most of the year, believes that this exhausting work is preferable to a winter spent locked up at home.

There is “little work in winter” in Harbin, he adds, specifying that he earns around 260 yuan (32 francs) per eight-hour shift – or barely more than four francs per hour. Cutting the frozen river is “testing” compared to other jobs, confides the fifty-year-old. But “when we finish, we look back and say to ourselves: ‘Ah, I accomplished so much today!’”