AKIPRESS.COM - "I felt my eyelashes becoming frozen in a moment and had an illusion that they were making sounds every time I blinked. Stinging pain hit the uncovered parts of my face and my ears. All of my muscles stiffened from being exposed to temperatures colder than I had ever experienced," said Kyodo News' Makoto Matsuoka.

He and Minoru Iwasaki, both correspondents at Kyodo News China General Bureau, made a snapshot into the cold weather in Inner Mongolia of China.

"I was visiting Hulun Buir in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in late December. The area is known as being the most frigid of China's extremely cold regions. But people were taking part in recreational activities, organizing a snow festival and swimming in an ice pool with temperature of 40 degrees below zero Celsius," continued Matsuoka.

An ice and snow sports festival was held in a snow-covered field in a suburb, featuring horse and camel races. The competitions started earlier than scheduled as organizers feared that participants might get too drunk during lunch before their start.

The intense cold was combined with a blue sky and clean air.