hey there folks...and happy spring...scientifically speaking of course...march 21st - spring equinox...however, here today in shanghai, we are having a fantastic weather day...sun is out, and more importantly the sky is blue....i have spent some time outside just to enjoy looking up....but have come back in to do some work and try and get another update out, as later this week i head off to myanmar for my spring break trip.....which is soooooooo exciting!!! more on that at the end...
this update will focus on a wintery escape i took with my friend sandy, to harbin, china....one of the most northern spots here in china...and we went there for the snow and ice sculpture festival...it was their 50th anniversary and we were not disappointed....i was excited not only for the festival, but also to see if i could still handle the cold....and i mean real cold...but we got lucky...it only got to about -23 degrees celscius....which is about -9 degrees F....so not so bad...not as bad as some of your winters this year.....anyway...the trip had fun adventures and lots of stories...but the images will have to speak first...enjoy the pictures :)
here's a shot of sandy as we wandered through the first of the parks we went to...this one was mostly ice sculptures and was right in the center of town....really close to the place we stayed the second night....we had the place to ourselves for the most part, as we got there right after it opened from lunch break....it really was beautiful....
the sculptures are made from part real ice & snow and part man-made fake ice & snow....they say that keeps it around longer than it would if it was just plain old ice and snow created by mother nature....
the creations they had were pretty amazing....so i didn't really care what they created them with....and yes...this is when the sun started going down, so of course it started to get colder....as you can see from this sculpture, it was their 50th anniversary for the ice & snow festival...but you would never know it was a big anniversary...as hardly any people were there when we were there....
the sculptures were all different types...many were of fish, tropical fish at that...which i thought was a little out of place...but they were really pretty when the sun shone through them...unfortunately i did a horrible job of catching the light correctly in my camera...so i don't have many of those to share...but i did like this one of the three muses....
along with the sculptures were ice and snow games and things you could try....but it was pretty pricy for us to get into this park...so we just stuck to the free slides and such....we did do more things at the night time festival we went to...just wait....but this bike was fun to watch when people were on it...very hard to control is all we could see...
it's interesting to me that the rubber ducky has become so huge in this part of the world...since the one in hong kong harbor, they have popping up all over the place...even in harbin...made of ice and snow...it is super cute though :)
this is the artistic shot of the bunch....again, it was amazing how few people were here...we could get pictures of everything with no people....we made friends with all of the folks working there and they were busy...as they were dusting all of the snow off of the ice sculptures, like this one....yep...dusting off all of that snow...whatever....
this was my favorite ice sculpture, but its really hard to tell what it is...on the left is a calligraphy brush and the next to it moving to the right is chinese script...of course you read it the other way...left to right and down to up...but i loved this one....wish you could see it better :)
sandy and i were there right before chinese new year...so lanterns and the burning of fake money were happening everywhere...i think it just added to the festivities...i guess this place gets really crowded during chinese new year...so i am glad we came a few days before it happened....as we got to see this with few other folks around and could enjoy it as long as we wanted....
another pretty lantern picture...here in cold, cold harbin, getting ready to head to the festival at night that is all lit up....i really did like this small park....very personal and all ice...and simply incredible what they could do out of ice...it was cool :)
but even more impressive was how things looked at night...this sculpture was of a horse...because it is the year of the horse here in china...and don't you love the mcdonalds in the background...mcdonalds is not the number one choice for fast food here in china though....kfc is...they love their fried chicken and chicken feet...not really my thing....
i am not really sure what this says in chinese....but i am sure it is something to do with the new year...this was outside of the first place we stayed in...which was an adventure to say the least....and because we were in the burbs, the only place to grab dinner was the mall...so it was pizza hut for us the first night....fast food from the states is everywhere :)
just so you don't think shanghai is the only polluted city in china...here's a shot of harbin the first morning we woke up...we didn't make it to this tower...but you can see the haze from the 30th floor, where i slept...yuck....
and then it was on to the ice and snow festival at night....and this one was spectacular....the lights, the slides, the sculptures you could climb, the skiing show, the artic foxes, the people, the warm beer....wait, warm beer....yep....in an ice and snow festival...it is figured that people want warm beer....or at least not beer from a refrigerator...man, they have a few things to learn...but we did have a harbin beer at the harbin ice and snow festival...don't you worry....
this was the big thermometer at the festival, telling everyone just how cold it was...i guess the weekend before was around 15 degrees colder...so i am sort of glad i was prepared for the worst and got warm times instead of super cold...but i had my antarctica gear with me...and at one point was too warm...always a crazy sign....so maybe i haven't lost my ability to deal with the cold....
the sculptures were super huge and super amazing....as you can see, they even made some famous buildings you could wander through and slide down...there were a lot of people so the waits for the slides were a bit crazy...but none the less, the snow pants were perfect and i stayed warm and slid well :)
here's one of the snow sculptures....very intricate....my favorite thing was all of the signs asking people to stay off of the sculptures and then how many people were on the sculptures....but they seemed to hold up quite well...there was a pagoda walk and a huge buddha and many different towers & even the disney castle...well, sort of...they said it was disney based...but it didn't really look like cinderella's castle....
this was where you could write a prayer to hang in the temple walk....we didn't do one, because we didn't see anything in english and thought it might we weird....but i did like all of the red for well wishes and new year's hopes and prayers....
but the one above is my favorite...this is replica out of ice and snow of the cathedral in iceland....simply amazing!!!! and they lit it up so well....it was an beautiful building...you couldn't go inside this one and it was the main center piece...so no sliding down it as well...but it was simply incredible....i loved it!!!!
the morning that we left we wandered around downtown harbin.....it was crystal clear and cold...so a perfect day to get some blue sky shots...things i live for...here is the main town city hall type building in the main square of harbin....
harbin is quite strange, in that it has a huge russian influence on its architecture and buildings and in the center of town there is even an russian orthodox church....we didn't go inside, but loved the outer walls and onion dome on top...reminded me a lot of romania....
they also had this cool sculpture of metal of a church....it reminded me of the one down in pioneer square in seattle, just because it is all iron and open...no glass though....it was a cool place to visit for a weekend and had a very different flavor than shanghai....
on the way out of town, i got this cool shot with a smoke stack...no worries...the plume was white, which means it is steam from water...but i just liked the way it turned out and looked....
the airport was crazy busy on our way out, as people were starting to fly all over china to get home for the new year later that week...and the airline we took had a tons of weight restrictions...so it was amazing watching all of the chinese get in line...weigh their bags...get out of line and try and re-pack their stuff so it fit regulations....there were kids running everywhere....and this one decided to jump into some luggage while his parents were struggling with figuring out a way to make everything fit and be under weight....who knows if they made it....they were on their third re-pack when i got this shot....they must have been frustrated....
this last shot of me is in my gear standing with ghenghis khan....or so the sculpture said....it was a great time...i stayed warm...saw amazing sculptures, slid down some fun slides and had a blast in harbin.....it was a fun place to visit, but i didn't really need more than a weekend there, so it was a perfect trip :)
so my time in shanghai is quickly passing by....i have three months left as of this tuesday before i hit the road...i am trying to get to all of the places i have missed thus far...but i think i am on target to get to it all...also am trying to hang with different people and have some fun experiences before i leave this part of the world....this week is our spring break and i am taking one of my last trips here in asia....to myanmar (previously known as burma)...i am going out with a bang here in asia and am really excited for this trip....lots of rules and regulations, especially with money...but i think it should be an amazing trip and will catch you all up with the adventure when i get back....
so happy spring one and all and i hope you are all well :)
have a fab day :)
dani
