Back in Beijing for the Last Days of Chinese New Year

After being in the States for five weeks, I arrived in time to celebrate the last few days of Chinese New Year. The pictures below are of a mall near my home. I am sure other malls and businesses looked just as fancy. They also end the celebration with fireworks. You really haven't experienced fireworks until they are going of all around you in every direction and continue going off until one or two o'clock in the morning. Out of my 13th story window, I could see fireworks everywhere. Quite a sight! The only thing that comes close to comparing to it is New Years Eve in Germany. (I am not sure if they still have a grand fireworks show now, but they did when I was there on my mission back in the dark ages.) Of course the smoke in the air in Beijing was impressive too, but I guess that is the price we have to pay for the display. Sending the Chinese New Year out with a bang or breathing clean air? I know how the Chinese vote on that one. I'm sorry, but I didn't have a camera that could capture the fireworks. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Last Day in Harbin

We purposely bought airline tickets back to Beijing for late in the day, so we could have a little more time in Harbin. After riding around the city the day before, we felt like we could find our way back to some of the things we had seen from the bus. Our first stop was back to one of the main areas of the city to see the Russian church that was built when they first founded the city. It is no longer used for church services, but it does contain pictures of how the city has changed over the years. (This has nothing to do with the church, but we loved how blue and clear the sky was.)

We left the Russian Orthodox Church in search a the Jewish Synagogue. We were able to snap a few pictures of the city as we walked along. When we reached the synagogue, we found out that it is used as a museum also.

Jewish Synagogue

Our last stop was the river, and the best way to get there was by taking the walking street again. Everything looked a little different in the daylight, but we also noticed as few things we didn't see in our evening walks.

 

We finally made it to the river and found plenty of people having a very good time. Someone told us that the river has about six feet of ice on it. If you zoom in on the following pictures, you will see cars out on it. This is just one more reason why people come to Harbin in the winter. The people also told us that this city is very beautiful in the summer, and we should come back. Who knows?

We did find our way to the airport as the sun was starting to set. In all - it turned out to be a very fun trip. We were looking forward to the balmy temperatures of zero degrees fahrenheit in Beijing, but certainly not the air pollution. I guess you just can't have everything, but we do have some great memories of our adventure in Harbin.

Tour of Harbin and the Ice Sculpture Festival

We purchased tickets for a tour of the city and the surrounding area - including the Ice Sculpture Festival at night. We were up bright and early so we could meet the bus at 8:00 a.m. After a breakfast of a boiled egg and some rolls, we were on our way. (There was more to eat than that, but I just can't get used to eating vegetables and rice for breakfast.) It was a clear, cold day on the outside, and even the bus was quite chilly. We hadn't been out very long when our bus had a problem, and they had to send someone to help us. I was able to take pictures out the window while we waited. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but there is a small rise in the road, and there is a layer of ice over everything. Cars would start up the incline and then slide backwards.

They finally sent for someone to come sand the roads. If you look carefully at the three pictures below, you will see a man with a shovel throwing out the sand. I must admit, it did take care of the problem.

Once we changed buses, we continued on our sight seeing tour.

This is a picture of a tower that is exactly like the Pearl Tower in Shanghai. It was very expensive and very crowded. We also thought it might even be a little cold, so we opted to watch the men work out in the freezing weather to create some ice sculptures before going back to the bus. We probably should have gone up because I am sure we would have had a great view of the city as the sun came up.

You can tell by the following three pictures that it wasn't very warm where ever we went that day. We kept bundled up in the bus and the restaurant where we ate lunch.

Our next stop of the day was an aquarium which became one our favorite stops because is was quite a bit warmer inside. We still kept all of our outer clothing on, but it was a bit warmer.

 We wouldn't have able to see very much without the help of these two girls who knew where to go and what to see. And yes, they spoke English. They kept guiding us along the right path to the next show or exhibition.

I won't try to show you all of the pictures of unusual fish that we took. They looked like what you would see at any other aquarium. They did have one exhibition that was quite amazing to watch. It had two trainers working with two Russian white whales. I have to admit, I haven't seen anything like it.

We were finally on the bus to go to the Ice Show - the main reason we came to Harbin. I was not disappointed. It was very amazing! There really isn't much that can be added to the pictures. I only thing I would like to point out is how big these ice sculptures are. You can get a little bit of an idea by looking at the size of the people around them, and we could walk through most of them.

I hope you can tell how impressive it was. There were a few places where we could go inside and get some hot water to drink which allowed us to warm up a little before venturing out again. It really was worth all of the cold we experienced in our stay in Harbin.