After a “working vacation” with my classes from Qinghua, I was ready for a vacation from teaching.  Thankfully, because of Labor Day, I had Thursday through Tuesday off.  However, I only had one class on the previous Wednesday so I decided to find a sub for that class so that I could travel with two friends to Chengdu, Sichuan and Xi’an, Shaanxi. 

Chengdu 成都 –  Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province. Chengdu means “city capital” and Sichuan means “four rivers”.  Chengdu is known for it’s teahouses and pandas! 

Our flight from Beijing was Tuesday evening.  I don’t know why I have developed a hatred for flying.  I used to love flying.  Maybe it is because I have recently had some really terrible flights.  Why is it that you have to fly to get somewhere quickly? 🙂  We landed in Chengdu late in the night and found a taxi to our hostel.  The hostel was amazing!  They only had the beds for that night so we had to find ourselves a different hostel for our remaining nights. 

Le Shan乐山

Our first day in and around Chengdu was spent outside of the city about 2 hours.  We first went to Le Shan乐山, which literally means “happy mountain”.  It was a beautiful bus ride out to Le Shan city.  The hills were covered with tea.  I thought maybe it was rice at first but then we asked someone what it was.  I didn’t take any photos in the bus. You’ll have to take my word for it.  We arrived in Le Shan city and had to transfer to a local bus to take us the Le Shan giant buddha.  Ever since I saw the picture in the Lonely Planet, I wanted to see this. 🙂  We had a little climb before we got to the top of the buddha’s head.  (Not like the climb up Taishan) 

Le Shan Giant Buddha - he was carved right in the mountain. If you look closely at the top of the picture you can see people to get a size comparison.

This is from the other direction. After seeing this side of him, we ventured down the staircase to get a view of him from below.

This was his foot. Notice the size of the people next to it.

The sad part of all of this was that people were actually w*rshiping this statue at the bottom.  I don’t understand how someone could put their faith in a stone statue. This is the thing that strikes me the most about the temples and other various places of w*rship here.  The artwork is beautiful but it’s purpose is very sad.

A few other things struck me about Chengdu and the surrounding areas.  First, it was so warm there.  Beijing was having some terrible cold spell or something so it was nice to be in warmer weather.  It was also very green.  This country is full of contradictions.  There is a drought in the north but flooding in the south.  The trees and other greenery were very beautiful!  Below is a picture of part of Le Shan.  I couldn’t resist taking a photo! 🙂

I loved how tropical it was. It was so warm and green. I could live there!

I was having a great time photographing HIS creation! What a blessing! 🙂

Emeishan 峨嵋山

From Le Shan we headed to Emeishan which was about 40 minutes away by bus.  Emeishan was also very beautiful.  When we got off the bus we were bombarded by people trying to sell us tickets back to Chengdu.  This was incredibly hilarious and my roommate, who’s Chinese is much better than mine, was having fun talking to all the people.  We decided to just wander around for a while and then catch a bus later on.  We found our way down a little river walk.  It was lovely. 🙂

One view of the river. There were numerous little restaurants, teahouses, etc. along the river. I would love to come back here and stay for a couple days!

Even the sidewalk was green (from the moss). It was difficult to get used to the humidity.

This waterfall is definitely man-made. They didn't even try to make it look real. Behind it was a big wall! 🙂 It was still nice to stand next to it and cool off.

This one looks a little less man-made. We actually had to climb up behind it to see the tubes/etc. It was still very beautiful. The rest of the surroundings were very pretty.

We encountered some interesting people while were climbing around.  One lady wanted to sell us beads.  She was super cute and told us she was over 80 years old. Then this little old man (I thought they were working together) wanted us to buy his oranges.  🙂  After we hiked around a bit, we went back to the town to catch the bus.  The bus ride home was brutal.  What was supposed to take an hour and a half ended up taking almost three hours.  We don’t really know why either.  Traffic wasn’t bad and there was minimal stopping.  We made it back to the hostel to collect our things so that we could get to our other hostel.

The next morning we decided to do a bike tour of the city with a group from our first night’s hostel.  Our ‘tour guide’ Joe was terrible.  Most of the time he wasn’t in the lead and we didn’t know where to go.  But he did have a pretty sweet outfit on.  We bike all around Chengdu along the river and through the city.  He took us to a seafood market where we found this:

This man was skinning snakes. The snakes were still alive and trying to climb out of the blue bin. Gross.

They had their jaws taped shut. 🙂 They weren't that big.

On the bike ride were the three of us, two Israeli men, one Israeli woman, a guy from Texas and another guy from Maryland.  It was a very interesting group of people.  Most of the time we didn’t know where we were going and we had to stop numerous times to get bikes fixed for some reason or another.  🙂  It was definitely a very “China” day.  Joe also took us past the largest statue of Mao in China.  Below is a picture of Joe.

This is Joe. He was our 'tour guide' through the city. Check out that awesome outfit! He was a really nice guy. Just not a very good guide.

After the biking tour of the city, we went to a really beautiful temple in the city.  There was much more green space in this temple than any other temple I have been to. 

Part of the garden of the temple.

The next morning we found ourselves on a minibus with a woman from Australia.  It was the three of us and this woman.  We don’t actually know who she was talking to but we do know that she wouldn’t stop talking.  Thankfully, the ride was only about 40 minutes or so.  We arrived at the Giant Panda breeding and research center.  Our minibus driver was also the one who ‘led’ us through the center.  It was very beautiful there and taking pictures of the pandas was addicting.  They were so cuddly looking. 

"Love me, don't bother me" This was at the panda breeding and research center. 🙂

This guy was taking a bath or something. He may have just been splashing around in the little pool. Nevertheless, he was cute.

Mmmmm.... Wouldn't you love to munch on bamboo all day long? I guess if it was in a pile right next to you and you didn't have to move to get it you might! 🙂

It looks like they are playing. Or maybe they are fighting over the bamboo. Either way, it's pretty cute.

It was so funny to watch them.

They're actually much more flexible than you would think. I think this one was putting on a show for us.

I think most of their day is spent lying around and eating bamboo.

These two babies were having a fight. At the end of the fight, one of them ended up at the bottom of the hill. I also saw another one fall off of it's wooden structure. They seem so clumsy. 🙂

Hmmm..... It's not? I am fairly certain I would never eat a panda but many wild animals taste very delicious. 🙂

This lake was called "Swan Lake" hehe 🙂

I specifically like #1 "Don't spit", #2 "Don't jump the queue", #3 "Don't step on the grassland", #6 "Don't force foreign tourists to take photos", and #7 "Do not utter dirty words"! 🙂 🙂

And so ends our time in Chengdu.  That afternoon, we got on a flight (super bumpy-not my favorite flight) to Xi’an, home of the terracotta army and also home of my dear friend Michael who was one of my students last semester.

Xi’an 西安

Michael came to the airport to pick us up.  It was pretty great to not have to find a bus or take a taxi.  The traffic in Xi’an was crazy and way worse than Beijing!  It took us just over an hour to get to Michael’s apartment.  I was hanging on for dear life to the handle above the door when Michael said, “Take it easy! Keep your heart inside your body!” 🙂 Ha!  Hilarious.  His English is actually really good.  I think it would have been easier for me to keep my heart ‘inside my body’ had there not been 3.5-4 lanes of traffic occupying 3 lanes.  It’s really every car for itself here in China.  But I think Xi’an takes it to the extreme.  I always laugh at the drivers who park on the sidewalks here in Beijing or the drivers who honk at the people walking on the sideWALKS.  But now I know, Michael is one of those drivers.  And part of the reason is because there is literally nowhere else to put the cars.  Crazy.

After we dropped our stuff off in his AMAZING apartment (very modern and so not China), he took us into the part of the city that is enclosed by the old city wall.  It was very beautiful down there.  I neglected to bring my camera with me that evening. Sad.  We saw the Drum Tower, Bell Tower, and the Muslim area.  Michael treated us to a delicious supper in the Muslim district.  After walking around for a bit, we decided to try to find a specific wood carver’s shop.  He carves wood and then uses the relief for a painting.  I bought one of his paintings and another painting by one of his students.  He and his wife were so nice.  I actually felt bad bargaining with them. 

We made it back to Michael’s apartment later that night and he told us that he and his wife would stay with his parents. What?!? Okay? So, we had his apartment to ourselves. 

The next morning the plan was to meet Michael at the south gate of the old city wall.  We were going to bike around the city wall (14 km) with him.  We got to the south gate and sent him a message.  To which he responded: “go without me. I can’t get there before noon.”  Okay.  So we climbed to the top of the wall, rented some bikes and were on our way.  A little way into our journey around the wall we decided to see how fast we could ride around the wall.  The rental fee was for 100 minutes of biking.  Surely we could bike 14 kilometers in 100 minutes or less.  So after we decided that we didn’t stop.  It was super bumpy on top of the wall.  But, we made it all the way around the wall in 49 minutes! We even got one “加油!” on the way. (加油 literally means ‘add oil’ but it’s a way to cheer someone on).

This man tried to sell me one of those instruments. I almost bought one but then decided they were too much.

After we were finished with that escapade we found ourselves walking through the incredibly crowded markets.  It was, after all, a holiday.  We met Michael for lunch as planned and then visited a Mosque in the Muslim area.  The mosque was definitely not worth the Y25 it cost to get in.  It’s bad when all temples/mosques/religious buildings start to look the same.  Hmmm…  This was an active one.  Also very sad to see.  One good thing that came from visiting the mosque was the addition of a few Chinglish signs to my collection. 🙂

Michael then drove us to a completely different part of town to see the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (I love the names for things) and these really awesome fountains!  The fountains were set to music and the show lasted about 20 minutes.  It was really cool.  I wish we could have seen it at night.  They were especially nice to stand near because the temperature in Xi’an got to 97.7 that day! Whoa!  It wasn’t even that warm in Chengdu, which is further south. 

We were standing near this pool when I noticed these hoses pointing in all different directions. I asked Michael if he thought we should move or not. He said we should be fine. About three minutes later everyone started to run to the other side! 🙂

 The above picture was taken before the fountain show started.  They had many ‘warning’ signs that we were about to get wet. 

We'll call this flat area a 'tier'. There were probably 5-7 tiers just like this in addition to the lower large pool and the one in the previous picture. The show was huge and crazy.

I’ll compare China and America once again.  Think back to the crazy New Year’s fireworks.  Chinese fireworks were crazy-huge and out of control.  The Chinese definitely know how to do things in large quantities (I mean, come on, 20% of the world’s population lives here–large quantity? Yes.)  But I would take an American firework show any day simply because it is more beautiful.  Then there’s this fountain show.  Quantity? Yes, for sure! It was huge and crazy.  Quality? It was good, but I’ve seen better.  The most entertaining part of this was watching the young men gang up on their buddies and drag them out into the water.  That, and the little girl who was behind me posing for her father’s pictures.  I’m not actually sure which one (the girl or the father) wanted her to be out there…

After the fountains we went back to Michael’s apartment and then found a really good restaurant near there.  We ate the Xi’an specialty before heading back to his apartment to hang out and wait for Mrs. Michael to come home.  I was excited to meet his wife.  I had only heard about her from him.  She didn’t get off work until really late and then had to wait a long time to take a bus home.  So we passed the time by looking at their wedding photos.  Chinese wedding photos = hilarious!  Michael’s did not disappoint!  There’s something about fake poses, rented dresses, and super-photoshopped photos that make a person smile!  I also love how newlywed couples (Michael and his wife have been married for one year) have incredibly large photos of themselves hanging everywhere in their apartment!  After Michael and his wife left, we tried to watch Kung Fu Panda (since we had been to the pandas and can fully appreciate the very accurate Chinese culture in the movie) but the movie didn’t play on Michael’s computer.  You would think that in a sweet awesome apartment with a ginormous TV, this man would have a DVD player to go with it. Nope.  That’s okay. I needed my sleep anyway. 

The next morning we got up to head to see the terracotta warriors.  Michael picked us up in his dad’s SUV (not his typical red Beetle) because he thought it would be more comfortable for the long ride. We made it to the location of the terracotta army and it was a madhouse.  There were people everywhere!  This was definitely not the time to be at this particular tourist location.  We zoomed through the museum part and also through the warrior part.  It was neat to see the pieces but this wasn’t my favorite place to visit.  I know people say that not visiting the terracotta warriors when you are in Xi’an is like not going to the Great Wall when you are in Beijing.  I felt obligated to go.  I took a few photos but all in all it was ‘just so-so’. 🙂  Below are some photos.

Pieces of the warriors that have not been put together yet

A few 'more complete' warriors

I'm not sure all of the horses are different. It was cool to see all of the different warriors though.

There were three different exhibition halls. This was the largest hall with the most complete warriors. This hall also had the most people. It was kind of a pain but Michael and I had fun trying to take photos! 🙂

After seeing the army, we met another one of my students (from this semester) for lunch.  We had a nice lunch and then went back to Michael’s apartment to rest a bit.  The rest of the afternoon was spent getting our things together and napping.  Michael then took us to a restaurant before sending us off on our overnight train back to Beijing.  This was my first time having a sleeper.  It was awesome!  I definitely want to take the train again! 

HE has blessed me again with safe travels!  Enjoy!

After arriving home from my travels up-north (that one was for all you Wisconsinites out there), I had the opportunity to be a tourist in my own town.  A traveling companion from Yinchuan was staying in Beijing for a couple of days and I took that opportunity to join him on some of his wanderings around the capital city. 

After getting to bed pretty late on Wednesday when we got back from Haerbin, we decided that it would be nice to sleep in a bit.  However, that didn’t really happen.  We ended up waking up fairly early and decided to make the most of it by going everywhere in Beijing.  🙂  He had not seen the city yet so I was sort of his tour guide.  Not that he couldn’t have figured it out without me but it helped to have someone who knows the city a little.  We began by visiting the site of the olympics.  It was really fun to hang out with someone who was so laid back about things and didn’t mind what he accomplished during the day.  He didn’t have any particular ‘goals’ to meet and this made the day relaxed and enjoyable!

I had not been there during the day yet, so it was fun to see the buildings in the sunlight!

After the olympics we decided to hit the electronics market.  This is one of my least favorite places in China.  There are way too many people and it gets really annoying when the vendors try to pull you (literally) into their booth to buy something.  The only thing we were looking for was a cord to charge his DS.  He needed one that would work in China.  We found him the charger and then we were off to lunch with my dear friend Fiona.  Lunch was at one of my favorite restaurants near the university where I teach.  The company was great, the food was wonderful!  It was just really nice.  I coudn’t have asked for it to be better.

After lunch, Fiona left and the two of us found ourselves on the subway to the Forbidden City.  We met his friend Zhai Li there and were going to meet a few other Meiguoren so that they could do a tour of the Forbidden City.  They were pretty caught up in their shopping at the pearl market, so instead of touring the Forbidden City, the three of us wandered around Tian’anmen Square, took some pictures and journeyed to meet them at the pearl market.  I think I like this market more than the other markets I’ve been to.  It’s basically the same thing as the silk market but with more pearls and less silk. (I know that last statement seems really obvious, but if you ever come to visit, you’ll know what I mean.)  Below are some of the photos from my wanderings around Tian’anmen Square:

Things I love about this photo: 1) Blue sky! 2) No people 3) Mao's mole 4) The abundance of open space

I had been to Tian’anmen before but it was on a much drearier day.  I could not have asked for a more beautiful sky that day.  It was still bitterly cold out, but I’ll take the blue sky!

Sites from the Square include:

Can you tell from which direction the sun was coming? This was taken on the same day as the previous one but facing southwest. This is Chairman Mao's mausoleum. Affectionately dubbed the 'Maosoleum' by many of my friends. 🙂 Inside you can view Mao's 'body'. I haven't had the desire to go in or the patience to wait in line.

This is facing directly west toward the Great Hall of the People. To my left is the Maosoleum, to my right is Tian'anmen, and behind me is the National Museum of China. It's handy having red as my favorite color. Many, many things are red in China.

I wonder why the flags don't have the stars on them.

This is the Monument to the People's Heroes. The reason I took the picture was because the sun was causing the text on the side of it to glimmer. It was really cool in person but very hard to capture in a photograph!

After the market we went to JingShanGongYuan 竟山公元 which is a little hill (they call it a mountain) in the middle of the city.  From the top of this mountain you can see almost the whole city.  It was dark by the time we got to the south gate but we thought that it would be pretty cool to see the city at night.  The rest of the crew was excited to see the Forbidden City from above because they didn’t get to see it during the afternoon.  I was just excited to see Beijing from up high!  We got to the top (after only about five minutes of climbing) and realized that there were no lights in the Forbidden City.  (We should have known this but none of us thought of it.)  It was really easy to ‘see’ the Forbidden City because it was a giant black square among all of the city lights.  I have a few not-so-great photos from on top of JingShan 竟山 that I will show you below:

Here is a view of the Forbidden City from Jingshan gongyuan. This was at about 7:00 pm. Yes that very large black area is the Forbidden City. Just for future reference, there aren't any lights. 🙂 In the background you can see the lights of the Great Hall of the People.

This is basically the same photo but taken with a much longer shutter. This is so you can see the egg-shaped building in the right of the background of the picture. This building is the Grand National Theater. I fully intend to take in a concert or two at that building! Forbidden City = still dark. Even with a long shutter.

After we climbed back down, we took a bus to the nearest subway station and took the subway to a popular foreigner restaurant for supper.  After that, three of us decided to go have some chuar 串 at a favorite restaurant of mine.  The chuar and the company were both awesome! 

The next day was some more shopping and time with friends.  We visited a scroll shop and I designed my very own scroll.  It is a gift for someone but I won’t say who. 🙂  It was nice to have visitors to the city.  I’m looking forward to the next round of visitors this coming weekend!

The past few days have also been wonderful.  Friday after my guest left, two of my dear Chinese friends came over for some hanging-out/playing a game time.  It was really fun just to visit with them and get to know them better.  They were here until 1:30!  We didn’t even realize that it got that late.  Must have been all of the fun we were having. 🙂 

This is my friend Peter. He was explaining to me why China is called the 'Middle Kingdom'. We were also practicing some Chinese. He was teaching me the characters for the colors and how to say them.

Saturday was spent relaxing around my apartment, editing photos, and updating my blog.  Much needed doing-nothing time. 🙂  That night, I met my friend Kevin for supper and then he came over for a movie.  We got about halfway through the movie and he said, ‘I think you are very tired.’  He was right.  Then, being the gentleman that he is, he decided to leave so that I could go to bed.  The next morning I went to the Haidian Chr**tian Church with three Chinese friends.  It was interesting to listen to the speaker.  After lunch they all wanted to come over to play a game!  We taught Zhai Li how to play Phase 10 because the other two knew how to play already.  The afternoon turned into the evening.  That evening, my plan was to make ‘American’ food for my friend Ross.  So I asked if the the three of them wanted to stick around.  I made them pancakes and scrambled eggs.  Not much, but semi-easy to do.  The food turned out okay and my guests were gracious and said it was ‘hao chi.’ (delicious)  The rest of the evening was spent munching on oranges and playing Catch Phrase, which is hilarious with four Chinese people!! 

This is the church we went to on Sunday morning. After church, the four of us had a good chat about the service.

Hope you all had a refreshing weekend!  HIS blessings to you all!

All is well in chilly Beijing. 

I finished teaching on Saturday of last week to begin six (yes, six) weeks of vacation.  I’ve never had this much time off when it wasn’t summer.  I’m looking forward to the rest and relaxation that a vacation should bring.  My vacation started with a massage after school that night.  It was awesome!  Then it was a movie with a few ladies before hitting the sack.  Sunday was the usual stuff with the group and some time getting ready for my trip to Haerbin. 

The next morning began fairly early with a subway ride to the Beijing Railway Station.  A friend from Yinchuan was going to be traveling with us.  Our train ride was at 7:15 and we wanted to meet a little before that so we wouldn’t miss the train.  We took the fast train (dubbed the “D” train by some FOCers because the number starts with D).  This method of transportation landed us in Haerbin, China at 3:30 pm the same day. Much better than a 19-hour overnight train ride. 

When we arrived, we decided to find our hotel by walking.  We knew it was fairly close to the train station so we just kept walking and asking people where the street was and finally stumbled upon it.  It was fairly nice and reasonably priced.  After checking in and getting situated, we found a restaurant that serves jiaozi.  This is basically a dumpling-like food that has a variety of things inside of it. I had jiaozi with pork and leeks! Yum…

We went back to the hotel and got into our minibus that would eventually drop us off at the snow and ice world.  The lady who was organizing this whole thing was very concerned about us and if we would find her when we were done.  It was all quite hilarious. The ride to the ice/snow world was pretty cool.  The city is dotted with ice sculptures as if to advertize for the large scale festival.  The funniest thing that I saw around the city (and they were everywhere!) were the little ice sculptures of PacMan.  I half expected there to be ghosts nearby but was disappointed when I saw none.  My goal was to capture a pacman in a photo but we were always in a car when we saw them.  So I will only have a mental photo of them…sorry.

We finally arrived at the ice and snow world and was in awe.  It was so large.  I did my best to capture the magnanimity of it all but I do not think the photos do it justice. You will have to take a look for yourself.  Pay attention to the silhouettes in the photos.  This will give you some idea as to how large the ice buildings are.  It was sort of like being in a fantasy world, and in a way, it feels like it was a dream.  I imagine that is how my memories of my year in China will be to me when I come back to the states.  I hope it remains very real but I have heard from others that it feels like a dream.  Below are pictures from the Haerbin Ice and Snow World.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is my longest entry. 🙂

The front gate was HUGE! It also changed colors every minute or so.

We were there on one of the warmer nights.

I tried not to think about what it would be like when the spring hits and all of this ice melts.  What do they do with it?  Where does the water go?  And along those lines…where do they get all of the ice to make the sculptures?  I also thought to myself that this sort of activity probably wouldn’t fly in the states.  There would probably be some issue with walking up and down stairs that were made of ice and the thoughts of impending lawsuits because of it.  Some of the staircases had red carpets on them but they were all covered in snow and just as slippery as the ice beneath them.  Thankfully I had my awesome made-in-China boots that had decent traction on the bottoms. That is one thing that astounds me about some Chinese women is that they are not willing to sacrifice fashion for safety or comfort.  Many, many women were wearing boots with heels.  Seriously?!?

Most of the 'structures' could be ascended using the stairs that were made out of ice.

A piece of Egypt right in China!

Along the side of the Sphinx were slides that anyone could slide down.  I chose to refrain from this activity for a couple of reasons.  If I would have had snowpants I might have thought differently about it. 🙂  The Sphinx was one of the smaller structures.  You can see it in a later picture.   

A day wouldn't be complete without beer that tastes like water. I imagine that this particular beer would be no different. 🙂

Harbin beer, the local brew (actually, I’m pretty sure it isn’t locally brewed at all) tastes just like Qingdao beer.  This is one thing China does not do as well as America…and America doesn’t even do it that well.  Sad… 

Here is the "Great Wall of Ice". Down one side of it was a slide. Down the other was a ripcord. Oh, the options!

In addition to the ice madness, every single tree in the park was covered with lights.  There were these willow-looking trees that had lights on them and it reminded me of the movie Avatar.  If only the ground beneath my feet would light up when I took steps. 🙂

The trees that reminded me of Avatar

The ruins of St. Paul College Cathedral in Macau. It was the largest Chr**tian Church in Asia at its time. It was built from 1582 to 1602.

Even now, when I look back at pictures, I am in awe of how large the ice structures are.  This one from Macau was especially exciting for a member of our traveling group who will be going there at the end of February.  Macau is the location of the highest bungee jumping in the world.  I think he’s crazy.

A Russian-type building on top of the Great Wall of Ice.

A shot from on top of the Great Wall

I like this shot a lot because you can kind of see the general splendor of the park and compare the building heights.  On the left side of the picture you can see the beer bottle.  Near it is the Sphinx.  At first, it was annoying for me to have the little silhouetts of people in the pictures but I am glad I have a reference point for the size of things. 

One of the many slides that you could ride. This was a shorter one. It also helped if you were wearing snow pants or another type of slippery pants. Jeans just didn't cut it.

The Colosseum. It was really funny to see the colosseum with Chinese writing on it.

It was neat to see other parts of the world represented in ice.  Most of it was from around China but there were a few other ‘notable’ structures scattered throughout.  One of my least favorite ones was Hollywood.  It was basically a pile of snow with the Hollywood sign on top of it.  There were ice busts of some ‘famous’ American actors in front of this pile of snow but only one name was recognizable to me.  All-in-all, a disappointing representation of America.  I mean, The Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, The Arch, The Golden Gate Bridge…  Come on, Haerbin!  I would have loved to see those things created in ice.  I kept telling myself that maybe they were featured at previous ice/snow world events.  Let’s hope… It would be sad to think that this is the view of America.  

Tian'anmen/Forbidden City

This one could very well be any type of building like this in China.  I just called it Tian’anmen and the Forbidden City because I live in Beijing.  There are many buildings throughout the country that have this appearance.  This one was cool because of its size also, but not its height.  It was very spread out.   

This was probably my favorite ice building. It was just really beautiful in person.

I loved the white pagodas.  I don’t really know why this one was my favorite but it was just simply beautiful.  Notice the horse-drawn carriage in the foreground of the picture.  We didn’t even ask how much that cost.  There were many other things you could do throughout the park.  One of our group members held a very much sedated white arctic fox.  The fox was pretty cute.  I kind of wanted to drape him around my neck.  Pretty sure that also wouldn’t fly in the states.  PETA would find you.  You could also sit on a yak.  I took a picture of one as the guy was telling me not to take a picture. 🙂 

"I triple dog dare you!" (He thought it would be really funny to stick his tongue to the ice. I thought it would be really funny if it got stuck!)

A piece of Xi'an in Haerbin. I wonder if all the ice warriors are different...

So, I got to see the ice representation of the terracotta warriors before seeing the actual warriors.  I recently found out that there will be chocolate sculptures of famous sites throughout China right here in Beijing next week!  I will have to get a picture of those to add to my collection.

They made the maze way too easy! 🙂

This was pretty cool…except that it was very easy.  The reason it was so easy was that you could see over the walls.  I don’t think they thought this one out fully. Oh well.  In the background of the photo is the main entrance to the ice world.  WOW!  My camera battery died before the night was over.  I don’t think that it likes to be cold.  So, I missed parts of the park.  One structure worth noting was the giant chessboard.  A traveling companion took a picture of me with a few of the chess pieces.  I will share them with you when I get them from him. 

At the appointed time, actually about 15 minutes early (we were very cold), we found our minibus driver and we waited for a while for the Chinese members of our group to get to the vehicle.  The did not show up and off we were!  Hmm…  We made it back to the hotel and met a student of mine for a snack before bed.

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The next morning we grabbed some noodles for breakfast.  (Never thought I would say that…) After breakfast we decided we wanted to visit St. Sophia Church, and as it was a bit of a hike, we wanted to grab a cab to get there.  Traveling with five people is sort of an inconvenience.  You always have to take two cabs.  So I said, “why don’t we just flag down the guy in the van.”  I didn’t actually think it would work or be possible but he pulled over and offered to take us for Y15.  This was a great price because it would have been that much or more for us to take two taxis.  We climbed into his van and immediately there were cops everywhere!  WHAT?!?  They got the guy out of his van and took him aside to question him.  In the meantime, another one came and talked to the person in our group whose Chinese is the best.  He asked her if we had given him any money.  Her answer was that we had not given him any money.  It was truthful for the moment.  A few minutes later, they let him back into his van and we were on our way.  Apparently the cops watch the illegal cab activity near that hotel.  I imagine that as soon as he dropped us off he went to find a place to throw up.  He informed us on the ride to the church that the fine for this sort of thing is Y20,000.  Needless to say, we gave him a little extra for his trouble. 

After that little episode, we were at St. Sophia Church.  There was a big square with many people doing exactly what we were doing…taking pictures.  We heard multiple times that the inside of a church didn’t look like the inside of a church at all.  So, we didn’t go inside the church but stayed outside around the church and in the square next to the church.  A couple of things that I witnessed as I was hanging out by the church:  many, many pigeons that would fly around the church at a whistle command, a group of four women who were obviously traveling together (I knew this because of their matching red boots.  Why one would wear matching red boots is beyond me.  This, however, happens very often in China. Not necessarily matching boots, but matching in general.), and another group of women traveling together. (They were wearing white boots. Where are our brains people?!?)

A dreary day at St. Sophia Church

This is one view of the church.  We didn’t spend too much time there and afterward we were off to meet my student for lunch.  He was in Haerbin on business and asked us to meet him at his ‘company.’  Well, we were unaware that his ‘company’ rents an apartment because there are only four people there and it also provides housing for them.  We met him there and after a cup of coffee we were off to lunch.  What business lunch would be complete without baijiu? Not ours!  Baijiu is literally ‘white alcohol’.  Some Chinese people call it white wine.  It is not wine, it is pretty potent, and it is not at all good tasting.  I could not even finish my half-a-miniature-Chinese-glass of baijiu.  Yuck!  It would have been impolite to not finish it so while they weren’t looking, one of the others drank the rest of it for me. 🙂

After lunch my student was able to hang out with us the rest of the day.  We went to a pedestrian street near the center of town.  Many ice sculptures adorned the streets.  We tried the famous Haerbin ice cream and enjoyed Russian tea at a nearby tea house.  After it got dark, we went to Stalin Park which is the location of the Flood Monument.  In 1957 there was a devastating flood and the monument was built in 1958 to commemorate the people who helped.  Below is a picture at night.

Fonghongbei Statue in Stalin Park

We had a relaxing evening in the hotel and a walk around the city the next morning before heading out of Haerbin.  During our walk around the city we found three churches right next to each other.  This was kind of cool.  On one of them was this sign:

🙂

Other sights that were fun to see in the city were these:

This reminded me of that game where you have to rearrange the vehicles to try to get one out! Traffic was worse in Haerbin than in Beijing.

I've seen cars park on the sidewalk before but this is ridiculous! 🙂

This man was sweeping the snow with a broom about two feet long. I could not resist photographing him. He caught me!

This man was popping popcorn.

These people are removing the snow from the square near St. Sophia Church. Notice the tools they have. Behind me are their brooms. I think they might be there a while.

This is what most of the snow in Haerbin looked like throughout the city. It was very dirty and slippery.

We got on the train back to Beijing and got back to my apartment at a little after midnight.  All-in-all, a good trip.  It is nice to be relaxing at home though! 🙂  HIS Blessings to you all!