In it is 32nd year, the festival also features a number of sculptures and exhibits, including a 51 meter high snow castle, said to be the largest in the world. This year’s festival is the largest yet, occupying a space of 800,000 square meters, equivalent to four Bird’s Nest stadiums.

Officially opened on January 5, the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival runs for three months.

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Visibility in Harbin has dropped to 500 meters, with some areas downtown reporting visibility is limited to just 200 meters. Officials are advising students not to attend school or participate in any outdoor activities.

Throughout the province, many highways have been outright closed due to poor visibility caused by the air pollution.

The air pollution is so severe that a flight from South Korea was forced to abort a landing at Harbin. Yesterday, Eastar Jet airliner ZE861 carrying 144 passengers, mostly from China, was forced to return to Chengju Airport when the air pollution prevented a landing due to reduced visibility.

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Four people in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province were stunned when the ground underneath their feet gave way as they stood waiting at a bus top.

A security camera recorded the moment at 5:40pm on August 22 on Guxiang Boulevard in Harbin. One woman is seen clinging to a pipe after the collapse, while another woman and two men fell to the bottom of the three meter-deep hole.

Just prior to the collapse, a crowd of people are seen walking through, indicating this could have been even worse.

Some people at the scene helped the victims get out of the ten square meter hole, while others on the stairwell simply watched and then walked away.

The victims were sent to a Harbin hospital where they were treated for various injuries including sprains and abrasions. Police cordoned off an area 100 meters around the sinkhole as workers attempted to make repairs.

There still has been no official word as to what caused the sinkhole, although an investigation is said to be pending. The hole was repaired the day after it appeared, and reports say business in the area has returned to normal.

Sinkholes in China have become a regular occurrence.

This past May, two pedestrians were injured when a  two meter-deep sinkhole appeared beneath their feet in Duchang, Jiangxi Province. Jiangxi also had another sinkhole back in March when three students were swallowed by a three meter-deep hole in Pingxiang.

In June 2013, a grandmother and her grandson were swallowed up by a three meter-deep hole in Shenzhen. In June 2010, a women was swallowed up by a hole in Chengdu after rains had been pelting the city for days.

Here’s the video of the incident in Harbin:

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The whirlwind celebrity romance of singer Qu Wanting and Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson continues to draw the public’s attention now that rumors Qu’s mother, Zhang Mingjie, has been arrested on corruption charges

Zhang was taken into custody last November by Harbin authorities, and is still under investigation for corruption. Her arrested had been rumored for months, but was just recently confirmed.

Zhang had been serving as deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission for the city of Harbin, and as director for the city urbanization construction group before being ousted from both positions in September and November of last year.

Since rumors of Zhang’s arrest surfaced last year, Qu has been criticized online for not returning to China to take care of her mother. The current whereabouts of Zhang’s husband Qu Heng, an art designer for the Harbin botanical gardens, is not known. Zhang is currently being held in the Guxiang detention center in Harbin.

For her part, Qu has remained in Canada with her fiancé, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.

Qu and Zhang have been known to have a strained relationship. Zhang was very domineering during Qu’s childhood, preventing her from dating, competing in musical competitions, and from leaving the country, which Qu eventually did when she was 16. Their relationship deteriorated to the point where the two stopped talking to each other for three years. However, they apparently mended their relationship in 2011.

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The building, a fire brigade office, was under construction.  It collapsed on Saturday around noon, trapping seven people under the rubble.  In total, four people died and five more are seriously injured.

Police are now investigating.

It has been suggested that the construction of the fire station in Sanjiao Village on Guangzhou Road involved the use of too little cement or poor quality cement. Witnesses said they saw the roof start to slant and then collapse.

A survivor, identified as Lao Zhang, described climbing out of the building as soon as it collapsed, he suggested that the cause was the hasty construction of the building.

Guangzhou Party Secretary Wan Qingliang called for an investigation into the cause. Mayor Chen Jianhua called on local hospitals to do everything they can for the survivors, according to Nanfang Daily. Both men went to the scene of the accident to offer moral support to rescuers.

Users on Sina Weibo were critical of officials responsible for the building’s construction, claiming ‘idiots’ were behind the planning.  One also said “What is happening to China?”, referencing a fatal bridge collapse in Harbin that killed three last week.

Photos from Sina Weibo of the building collapse below.  You can see more footage of the rescue here.

(Thanks again to @MissXQ for the info). 

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