Thomas's new hair

Before
After
So after several months of not being able to see Thomas's face and having people usher him towards the ladies room his father and I decided it was time for the dreaded hair cut. His parents are pleased with the results (although the hair could hardly be called short), Thomas is not. So the growing begins again.....

Winter swimming and St. Sophia's Church

After the tiger reserve we had lunch and then were on our way to St. Sophia's church. On the way the guide asked us if we were interested in seeing the winter swim. We were going to passing by just as it was going to be taking place. We were game! We made a brief detour to the river where a large swimming pool size hole had been cut out of the river. Just as we walked up to the railing the swimmers started coming out of a warming hut. Remember the air temperature is in the single digits (F). They all took their turn jumping in and swimming a lap and getting out. There was one woman who stayd in at least 5 minutes! The swimmers were both Chinese and Russian. I wonder if winter swimming in Harbin pays well......?



St. Sophia's Church is a Russian Orthodox Church built in the 20's when the Russian's were extending the Trans-Siberan railway through China to Vladivostok. It is now a museum of Harbin's history. The church survived the cultural revolution because it was used as a warehouse but it was largely gutted and stripped of all it's religous artifacts. It still is. There was very little attention paid to the true nature of the building. All the religious artifacts that remain are displayed in the back hallway where the priest would have put their robes on. Very interesting!


We were then onto the walking street in Harbin, a 3km long cobblestone pedestrian walkway with shops lining the road. Lots of Russian Commodity shops selling nesting dolls and Russian vodka. We were beat at this point and headed back to the hotel to have a drink in the Ice bar!







We really enjoyed our time in Harbin and would recommend a visit!

Polar Land and Siberan Tiger Reserve

After we had our fill of the snow sculptures we were off the Polar Land. It is an aquarium with largely polar animals. We found it a little depressing and didn't spend too much time. The fish exhibits were interesting but the mammals didn't have enough space or anyway to be outside. Most of them were circling in their small cages. There were two polar bears swimming in a very small tank. They just bearly had enough room to turn around. We enjoyed the fish and Noah liked the sharks and we went on our way. The thing I found most depressing it is a new aquarium, only built in 2006 so clearly the American view on trying to give animals in captivity an environment close to what they have in the wild doesn't hold here!

We were then onto the Siberan tiger reserve. Quite an experience! You get on a small bus and ride out into a large field (990,000 square meters) that in fenced off into different sections. The tigers are just roaming around and don't pay too much attention to the bus. There are only about 50-60 siberan tigers left in the wild but there are over 700 at the reserve! As far as I can tell they aren't doing anything to reintroduce them to the wild. Nobody could answer that question for me! Anyhow you are given the option to buy a live chicken for 40 yuan (about 6 dollars). We did and before we knew it a jeep type vehicle came into the section we were in. It was enclosed in a metal cage. It pulled up in front of our bus. The tigers swarmed the car-definitely knew it meant lunch. The driver opend his door and threw a chicken onto the roof of the car. Instantly a tiger jumped up on top of the car and grabbed the chicken. He ran off away from the group to defeather and eat his lunch. It all happened so fast and with no struggle on the chicken's part. It was much less disturbing than I feared it would be! At the ticket counter their had been a menu of all the animals you could purchase, ranging from a chicken to a sheep to a cow! Thomas was all for buying a cow but at 250 dollars and the potential for being very disturbing we declined! Only in China!

Lunch!

Sun Island and snow sculptures

Day 4, February 7th

We packed a lot into this day! We started very early at Sun Island, a Central Park type park although an island in the middle of the river (the Songhua-sp?) that runs through Harbin. We opened the park and had it largely to ourselves- an unusual experience in China! The Chinese Government had collaborated with France this year designing and making the sculptures so there was a interesting mix of Chinese and French design. Some of them where absolutely huge! We walked around looking at the sculptures and there were plenty of more opportunities to slip and slide as well. Sophie and I even rode on a dog sled pulled by two very bored looking huskies!

New Year's Eve

At the top! It was truly as cold as I have ever felt!




Warming up with some hot pot lunch.


Enjoying cooking their own food.

Day 3 Wednesday, February 6th

After our night in the seriously mediocre hotel we quickly packed up and hit the road back to Harbin. Before we left the resort our guide suggested we try the "slide-away". Curious what it was we agreed. It was an alpine slide. The kids remembered the one they had done in Stow and were anxious to try this one. We got in line for the chairlift up to the top of the mountain. The equipment made me a little nervous. It looked like hand-me downs that had definitely seen better days. We had to wait for 7 or 8 chairs to go by to wait for one that had an unbroken seat! I climbed on with Noah hoping I wasn't going to regret it! The state of the chair lift didn't make Noah nervous but the cold did! It was very windy. I don't have any proof but I have to say it was at least -35. Not a pleasant ride up! The ride down was great however. Very long and windy track with decent equipement. Brakes worked well! Thomas was game for another run but the rest of us couldn't brave another ride up!

We drove back to Harbin and went to a Hot Pot restaurant. Hot Pot style involves everyone getting a little pot of boiling liquid, either spicy or mild. You order a variety of thing to cook in the pot, thinly sliced beef, vegetables and we got shrimp, which arrived at the table still alive! Our guide proclaimed, "Very fresh!" It was delicious and the kids had a good time cooking their own food.

It was New Year's Eve. We were told we should go to a large square and watch the fire works. We had a swim in the hotel pool and hot tub instead. We could hear the fireworks from out room. Nobody seemed that interested in putting on the layers necessary to brave the cold again. Beside, standing in a large public square, freezing, with thousands of other people watching fireworks that may or may not be safely ignited with my three children just didn't appeal. So we ate dumplings, traditional New Year's food, and went to bed!

Skiing in Yabuli

Noah doing a great job with too much ski for a little boy!


Thomas having braved the line at the rope tow.


Sophie, trying to stay warm


The view from the hotel was the best part.

Day 2 Tuesday, February 5th

We got up and met our guide Galen, (a delightful guy to spoke english pretty well) who had arranged a car to drive us the 200km west to Yabuli International Ski Resort. We had lunch at a road side restaurant. I think we were the first westerners they had seen in a while. Lots of staring and smiling. We had a kilo of dumplings (a lot!) and a huge bowl of chicken fried rice. We all had tea and sprites. We paid the bill and Galen apoligized for the next 15 minutes about how expensive it was. The meal had been about 18 dollars for 7 of us (our family and the guide and driver). We assured him it was ok. The dumplings were delicious!

After arriving at what looked to be an enormous ski resort, still largely under construction, we went to the smallest hill at the resort and rented some skis. Either they never had or were all rented out, short enough skis for Sophie and Noah. Their skis were easily twice the lenght they should have been. We had about 12 men surrounding us, either disbelieving that we were going to be able to ski or just anxious to see westerners try their hill. We slowly made our way to the rope tow. The conditions were really pretty terrible. Apparently this has been their driest winter in a long time. We basically skied on ice which made us happy that the hill wasn't any larger than it was. (Basically a learners slope with a rope tow.)

Noah made two or three runs on his enormously long skis and decides playing in the snow at the bottom of the hill was more fun. The rest of us skied until our time ran out (we had to turn in the skis by 4pm.) We are now anxious for some more "real" skiing".

After a similar entourage as the team that helped us get our skis helped us check them back in we were off to the hotel. We quickly learned that a three star hotel in China is too few stars! The rooms were small, dirty and smelly! Had there been any other options we would have moved but since there weren't ,we stayed. The kids were relieved that we were going back to Harbin and the Shangri-La (a five star hotel!) We have spoiled them!

Lunar New year

We spent the Chinese New Year up in Harbin which is the capital city of Heilongjiang province, the northern most province in China. To say it was cold was an understatement! Daily tempatures ranged from -15 to -30 degrees celsius. We stayed warm and had a wonderful time adding lots of memories to our China experience. Here are a few highlights.

Day 1 Monday February 4th.
We arrived about 5 hours later than planned since our flight out of Shanghai was delayed. We checked right into our hotel and put on a few extra layers and headed right over to Ice World. Ice World is just what it sounds like, a world of ice. Although not the warmest time of day, it is best visited at night as all the sculptures are light up in day-glow colors. There were dozens of ice sculptures, replicas of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Acropolis, London Bridge, and lots of slides and snow castles. The kids had a blast racing up and sliding down all the snow slides. They also got to toboggan, ride ice bikes (bikes with blades instead of wheels), snowmobile (around a track) and eat frozen fruit kebabs! Noah was the first to cry mercy and the other two weren't far behind. I think we stayed about 2 1/2 hours! My feet were frozen!

Thomas trying to slide without sitting on the ice!






"I double-dog dare you!!" Don't do it Sophie!


Jon trying the ice wall. He is climbing up after Sophie who nimbly scampered up and waited for dad at the top!