2020年2月

【今日元宵节】祝大家平安健康，团团圆圆！ (© Sino Images/Getty Images)

魁北克老城区的景色，加拿大 View of the Old City in Quebec City, Canada (© RENAULT Philippe/age fotostock)

Frozen fun in the Canadian cold

Not far downriver from Montreal, where the banks of the St. Lawrence River widen as it approaches the Atlantic, lies Quebec's picturesque and often chilly capital. Quebec City, one of the continent's oldest European settlements, is often called the most European city outside Europe. It's the only North American city outside Mexico whose fortified walls still stand, and its winding streets showcase a French-tinged exemplar of old Romantic architecture (typified by the steep-roofed Château Frontenac in the photo's foreground).

The mid-sized metropolis has been central to French Canadian life for over 400 winters, and the annual Quebec Winter Carnival—which kicks off today—is one of the largest and oldest cold-weather celebrations on Earth. Thousands of Quebecers and visitors will spend the next 10 days ice skating, enjoying night parades, exploring the festival's ice palace, and dressing up for the Château's masquerade ball. A few will even perform winter feats like the ice canoe race, where boaters pilot specially-equipped canoes across the freezing St. Lawrence, intermittently stepping out to carry their vessels over huge ice chunks.

亚伯拉罕湖中的冰泡，加拿大艾伯塔省 Bubbles in the ice of Abraham Lake in Alberta, Canada (© robertharding/Alamy)

Frozen beauty

Located on the North Saskatchewan River, Lake Abraham is an artificial lake and Alberta's largest reservoir. Even though it's man-made, it takes on the blue color of other glacial lakes in the Rocky Mountains. In winter, the lake draws nature photographers interested not just in the wildlife and spectacular landscape, but also the lake's odd appearance when it freezes over. Bacteria on the lake bottom feed on dead organic matter and release the methane bubbles you see here. When the surface water freezes, the bubbles get trapped, creating a photographer's dream. They may be beautiful, but these frozen bubbles can be dangerous because they're highly flammable. If you happen to be lighting a match nearby, you'll want to watch out or the released methane could explode. The bubbles aren't so friendly to the environment, either; methane emissions are a major part of global greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change.

狮子岩，斯里兰卡中央省 Sigiriya Rock, Central Province, Sri Lanka (© Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images)

Rock of ages

We're here at Sigiriya, or Lion Rock, in Sri Lanka, for the South Asian nation's Independence Day, celebrated annually on February 4. Sigiriya towers 600 feet off the ground, jutting dramatically out of the heart of this island country and serving as a formidable monument to the past. The king of Sri Lanka himself, King Kashyapa, who ruled from 473 to 495 CE, once made this the site of his new capital. He ordered that his palace be constructed atop the rock and about halfway up, he had a large gateway carved into the side of the outcropping in the shape of a lion (hence the name). His fortress was abandoned when he died, and the site later served as a monastery. These days it's a tourist attraction and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

拉帕努伊国家公园中阿胡汤加里基的摩艾石像，智利复活节岛 Moai statues at Ahu Tongariki in Rapa Nui National Park, Easter Island, Chile (© blickwinkel/Alamy)

The 'moai' you know

Roam around the tiny, remote Easter Island and you'll find almost 900 of the stern stone faces called moai. They seem ancient as the pyramids, even a little alien, but they were actually sculpted between 500 and 800 years ago from compacted volcanic ash that's as terrestrial as it comes. You're seeing six of the 15 moai that stand on Ahu Tongariki, the largest ahu (stone platform) on the island. These statues were toppled in the 18th or 19th century along with other moai island-wide for reasons not fully known to scholars, though earthquakes or possible tribal infighting are postulated. The statues were later buried by a tidal wave and lay in ruins until the 1990s when they were excavated and placed back on the ahu.

Though scholars still debate how and why the moai were constructed and moved into place, it's known that they represent the ancestors of the Rapa Nui, an isolated and hardy culture that still celebrates its uniqueness. Visit Easter Island during the first two weeks of February and you'll find yourself in the midst of Tapati Rapa Nui, a festival that revives islander ceremonies of song and dance, as well as sporting events like ocean canoeing, horse racing, and haka pei (high-speed sledding on banana tree trunks).

从上魏斯巴赫山地列车的车站向外看，德国图林根 View from railroad station of mountain train in Oberweissbacher, Thuringia, Germany (© golero/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Cable car station of the Oberweissbacher Bergbahn

Today you can look at snow-covered tracks and remote forests from a station of the Oberweissbacher Bergbahn. If you want to experience the picturesque winter landscape of the Thuringian Slate Mountains from this unique perspective, you don't have to reach deep into your pocket: a day ticket for the historic funicular, which is open every half-hour over a nearly 4 Mile-long route, currently costs just 14 euros.

The track consists of a wide-gauge cable car and an adjoining standard-gauge and electrified adhesion section. Both parts of the route are closely linked operationally and have been listed as a monument to the history of production and traffic since 1982. The mountain railway has been part of Deutsche Bahn AG since 1994 - at the moment it is the only German cable car that is not owned by the community or privately.

汽车穿过贝加尔湖冰面的鸟瞰图，俄罗斯 Aerial view of car crossing over the frozen surface of Lake Baikal, Russia (© Amazing Aerial Agency/Offset)

The Pearl of Siberia

Lake Baikal is a record-holding wonder: It's the world's oldest (25 million years), deepest (over 5,000 feet in some parts), and largest freshwater lake (more than 20 percent of the Earth's fresh surface water by volume). Baikal lies in the deepest continental rift on Earth, and because the rift is geologically active, the tectonic plates continue to move farther apart.

Fairweather tourists visit the 'Pearl of Siberia' in warmer months, but the brave and hearty show up in January when the lake surface freezes over. The ice makes an excellent playground for winter athletes competing in everything from skating marathons to the Baikal Ice Golf Tournament. And when the frozen expanse is at its thickest, an ice road opens between the mainland and Olkhon Island, pictured here, allowing people to drive across another superlative: turquoise ice so clear it's transparent to depths of 100 feet.

Staircase of turquoise pools

While it's snowy and cold in much of the Northern Hemisphere this time of year, December and January are popular months to visit Guatemala, where the skies are clear, but everything is still green and lush from autumn rains. Nestled in the Guatemalan jungle, Semuc Champey is a hotspot for adventurous tourists. Its name means 'where the river hides under the stones' in Qʼeqchi', a Mayan language spoken by local communities.

Our image showcases the 980-foot natural limestone bridge that crosses over the Cahabón River. Atop the bridge lies a series of stepped turquoise pools—it's a paradise of swimming holes for those intrepid enough to reach this remote locale. Truth be told, word has gotten out that Central Guatemala is an up-and-coming tourist destination, with its stunning natural areas, Mayan ruins, and highland regions. Maybe it's time to plan a trip.

星空迷

元宵节 (© Sino Images/Getty Images)