In the heat of summer, before school starts again, I’ve finally found some time to reflect on our other winter adventures during the past Chinese New Year! And it’s safe to think of winter for the moment, because it’s still a long ways off. You may be hearing from me (Steve) more often this year, as I’ve made it through the first year of curriculum planning from scratch! I actually know what I’m doing now, and I’ve got lesson plans to prove it, so I should have a little more time on my hands. We felt it best that I tell these stories as it was largely my desire to visit the one place, and it was my parents we traveled with for the other. You have heard of our trip to Thailand, but I present to you…… Harbin & Hainan!
Harbin is the most magical winter wonderland I never could have imagined!! There are so many breathtakingly beautiful sights to take in that between the ice & snow sculptures and the chill weather that leaves the air well below freezing, it would be a marvel if you had any breath left in you! Haha – my interest in Harbin was first aroused through a student’s enthusiastic presentation on the province of Heilongjiang (although he hardly talked about anything but Harbin, since that was where he’d been), as well the thrilling pictures I saw in other students’ PPTs. It continued to grow through conversations with various expats who had visited the frozen north and returned quite impressed with the diamond in the rough. I knew that we had to go, but when?? And timing aside, Emily and I were barely surviving the winter in Shanghai – how were we going to last more than an hour in average temperatures of 20 or more below freezing? But in one last conversation with a colleague on the eve of Chinese New Year, I heard there was a large Siberian tiger park up there as well. And I was sold. We had to go – immediately! We were already planning to go to Thailand for a week, then to Hainan with my parents for a week. And in one of the most spontaneous things I’ve done, I came home and convinced Emily (without much effort, I might add) that we needed to go to Harbin during the third week of Chinese New Year. We bought the tickets that night, and 2 ½ weeks later we were in the air on our way to Harbin! However, my enthusiastic expectations of the place had only imagined the tip of the iceberg.
Upon our morning arrival, we were informed by the captain that the current temperature outside was -24 degrees Fahrenheit; that’s what we had thought the low temperature was supposed to be at night! So we thanked God for providing my parents’ generous cold-weather outfitting and embraced the biting, cold sunny day. Our 4-star hotel was very nice for its low price (<$50/night!), and featured both an excellent location and a great travel & tourism service! :) Emlz strikes again! (She’s the best at finding excellent places to stay by sifting through dozens of online offers and reviews…if you ever need somebody ;). A pedestrian street paved with cobblestones and mini-ice sculptures (including the words “I Love You” and “Welcome to Harbin”) was just around the corner, leading the way to a mall, lots of little shops, and at the far end: the river had completely frozen over! It was an incredible thing to experience: locals had set up a steep sledding hill that shot out inner tubes onto the icy plain, there was ice skating (and ice benching?) – you could even get pulled around on the frozen river by horse drawn carriages, if you’d like!
But I’m getting ahead of myself. First of all, survival skills – how did we stay alive? Well, multiple layers and ski masks were a good start. My eyelashes may have frozen out there as well. But thankfully, we discovered an interesting fact about China. Anything north of the Yellow River is actually generously heated by the government, and well-insulated. We would actually be much warmer in the winter if we lived much further north! Haha – regardless of whether we were in the hotel, the taxi, or McDonald’s, we were quite toasty and comfortable. The trick was to brave the frozen tundra for half hour intervals, and then hurry inside to thaw out toes, fingers, and other vital organs ;).
Now we had come all this way for the ice festival, and we couldn’t wait to go check it out! And let me tell you this: it did NOT disappoint. Castles, pagodas, and Russian towers, Elvish enclaves, and impressive fortresses, all made of finely carved ice and all magnificently illuminated against a darkened sky in many and sometimes ever-changing colors! Em was jumping up and down with ecstasy and we simply could not stop taking pictures! Of course, it pained us to do so (literally); the night was bitterly cold. We visited nearly every hot chocolate house in the whole park by the end of our time there – when you visit, you’ll realize the necessity of regaining feeling in your limbs as well as courage to face the cold again. But how could we bear to stay indoors when such incredible splendor awaited us outside? The shops’ walls were made of glass, but that’s merely seeing through a glass darkly when the opportunity to climb and slide around on the structures themselves is waiting for you: and there was simply so much to discover! In addition to the large castles, there were finer, small sculptures of dragons, Romeo & Juliet, etc. that were beautiful to behold. Teasing our thirst for the fresh and original were a few large snow sculptures: my favorite was Johnny Depp in Pirates form of course – who wouldn’t appreciate the likeness of Jack Sparrow, constituted in true snowmanship?
I was satisfied with my icecapade, feeling very fulfilled already in our journey to the frozen northern paradise. But our adventure had only just begun! With Tolkien’s Two Towers to liven up our quieter, warmer moments, we were never without excitement. Btw, I like the Ents much better in the book – you don’t get a true sense of how interesting and powerful they are in the movies! A second aside, we’ve finished LOTR now, but I’m still lost in Middle Earth. After reading The Silmarillion, I moved on to Unfinished Tales. Can’t wait for The Hobbit this winter!!
Back to Harbin: the next day began with a trip to the Siberian tiger park – what incredibly beautiful and powerful animals!! And there were so many of them! I can only imagine how awesome and terrifying it would be to see one in the wild! I’m sad they’re in captivity, and yet glad for both the opportunity to see them and also that they were not trophies for some poacher. The most shocking event we witnessed there was when a cage-plated Jeep drove out at the outset of our bus tour through the park, stopped next to a few of the lounging tigers, and threw a chicken onto the roof. Within seconds, a tiger jumped onto the side of the vehicle and snatched the bird off the roof. A few seconds passed, and we saw it happen again – wow! Also in the park, we saw a pair of black panthers and two white Siberian tigers – I’ve loved white Siberian tigers ever since I had a stuffed animal of one when I was very small :).
Of course, it was not long before we discovered that a dianyingyuan (movie theater) was close at hand. But before our evening adventure to see M:I-4 : Ghost Protocol began, we wanted to check out the ice sculpture park down at the end of the street first. And Em’s hunch to explore the magical park inside those gates could not have proven more fruitful. With lanterns hanging from every branch, Christmas lights on the smaller trees, and plenty of small-scale ice gazebos and archways, the park had truly been transformed into a winter wonderland :). There was even a hall of competing ice sculptures, some of which were very exquisite and exciting! One of my favorites was the giant fish eating a fish who was eating a fish who was eating a fish… :). Was Ghost Protocol a good movie, you might wonder? Well, let me answer your question with two other questions. 1) Why haven’t you seen it for yourself yet? And 2) Is ice made of frozen water? – I think I’ve made myself clear here ;).
On our final day, we bit the bullet and decided to take a chance on a tour of Snowland – for which we were delightfully overjoyed! :) The snow sculptures were very impressive! Highlights included many from the snow sculpture garden, the animal carnival, and the snow village, as well as the dozens of identical snowmen we passed upon our entrance. I especially enjoyed the shark fighting scene, the dragonball and the mushroom house, etc. Thanks, God , for a truly amazing adventure! And the best part is, everything is built, sculpted, and rebuilt anew each year (as it does break the freezing barrier during the summer months), so you (or we) could travel there this year and see brand new sights!
Hainan. A stark contrast to the cold weather we’d be experiencing the following week, it was not burning hot, but very comfortable. Through an online error, we were able to experience quite a nice hotel at 1/7th the price! Sanya (the part of Hainan we stayed in) is considered quite the tourist destination for the Chinese. They call it the Hawaii of the East. And with warm, fresh, sea air, it is quite a contrast from Shanghai as well.
We loved being able to take this trip with my parents. Magnum bars were an evening tradition, along with Dutch Blitz and relaxing by the beach. It wasn’t all evening breezes and sea gulls, though! Even as the fifth day of the new year rose, fireworks could be heard and seen from both near and far. Twice we had seen the MOST INCREDIBLE fireworks display imaginable set to music in the 1st annual Sanya musical fireworks competition (like Disneyland, but on a much larger scale). On the first night, we watched them in reclining chairs at the pool-side, exploding between and above the palm trees after they were sent up from 5 large ships in the bay – they were SO LOUD! And as my mom later described the fireworks, it wasn’t like “ooh, aah” fireworks. It was like “WHOA! AAAAHHHHH!!!” fireworks! Haha. In addition to the colorful hearts (during the Titanic theme – a Chinese western favorite) and smiley faces, waterfalls, and golden fairy dust as well as GIANT multicolored explosions, they kicked things off with a dragon that shrieked across the sky along with several flower pinwheel fireworks that were very pretty. No, it wasn’t as awesome as Gandalf’s dragon from The Fellowship, but it was the coolest firework I’ve seen outside of Middle Earth ;). By the way, I’m extremely excited for when someone figures out how to mimic that dragon in real life :). The competition was an incredible sight – one of the songs was James Bond theme as well (diamonds are forever…) :) And one of my favorite things about the smiley face fireworks was that they frequently didn’t turn out quite right, so they looked like angry-face fireworks, or better still upset-stomach face fireworks. Haha.
While we waited for the shows to begin, Ipad Boggle and Scrabble were a must. And during our days, paddle ball in the pool, billiards, and more LOTR reading, of course :). We rented bikes and rode around one day, and walked up to this lovers’ park place that was founded based on a very interesting story involving a man and a woman that turns into a deer, I believe. No deer in the park, however, but plenty of cute little monkeys! Actually, now that I think of it, their behavior wasn’t always all that cute. Haha. Mom also invented this very fun movie game to pass the time over dinner – it was great to be able to laugh a lot with her on this trip. And, as is true with nearly any great vacation, I enjoyed lots of delicious pizza! There was a beachside western restaurant that had great margherita pizzas :).
All that to say, we’re glad to be back in Shanghai (and happy to have just returned from a great trip to Beijing with Dad and Robert, of which I’m sure you will hear shortly).