Chinese New Year doesn't officially kick off until Monday, but the Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre started the party early this weekend. Actually they have been working up to it for a while. Ice carvers from Heillongjiang, China were in town this past week chipping away at ice cubes to create beautiful sculptures. The bears, bulls and dragons are all the more impressive if you remember that the carvers were outside working on ice when the temperature topped out at -30. The luck of the dragon is already upon us, because you can go see the sculptures now when the temperature is above zero.

Inside the centre were dancing girls, a market with crafts, jewellery, kumquat trees and more.

Before I left I put a message for the upcoming year on the wishing wall and looked up one more time at the ceiling on the centre.