Every winter, dozens of workers brave subzero temperatures to hack ice from the mighty Songhua River in northeastern China. The ice forms the building blocks for the massive sculptures at Harbin's Ice and Snow World, an annual festival that draws tens of thousands of visitors. But this year, a warmer autumn has delayed the freeze and left the river ice thinner than normal. "By now, the ice is (usually) 57 or 58 centimetres (23 inches) thick," said Huang Wu, 52, who has been harvesting it for two decades. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES