THESE beautiful ice sculptures create a real winter wonderland as they are painstakingly created from huge mounds of compressed snow for China’s annual ice festival.

After thousands of man hours in the making, the stunning sculptures are finally ready for the throngs of tourists at the annual Jingyue Snow World festival in Jingyuetan National Forest in China’s Jilin Province. Among this year’s exhibits are life-size church, a sprawling stately home, a wonderful Disney-style castle and a herd of galloping horses.

The sculptures require huge amounts of skill and effort to complete due to their enormous size and the high levels of detail required. Large teams worked on in freezing temperatures well below zero to ensure the exhibits were ready on time for the grand opening. As well as the dazzling snow sculptures, Snow Paradise boasts an ice carved forest and an ice carved octopus slide track. The Jingyue Lake National Forest Park itself covers a massive 200 square kilometers and is famous for its picturesque scenery, magnificent mountains and thick forests with over 30 tree species.