Day 127 – Harbin - BRRRRR!!

We met Mr. Zhang, who we had made arrangements with to take the Pace’s and us to the airport at 9 a.m.  Then we went to the Pace’s complex and picked them up and arrived at the airport in good time.  The Clarke’s were already there and we had about one and a half hours to wait for our flight to Harbin. 

Instead of getting off on a ramp, we had to walk off the plane to a waiting bus.  They crammed as many as they could in and finally when there was no more room to move one way or the other, they closed the door and drove us to the entrance where we could go get our luggage at.  We then met the tour guide, Peter, and went to the hotel.

Our first sight of Harbin.  All made of ice blocks!

The ice structure surrounded this round-a-bout.

After checking in, we had about 15 minutes before we needed to meet in the lobby to go the Ice World.  At Ice World, they start building it as soon as the river freezes in November.  They add lights to the blocks of ice and they have all sorts of buildings you can climb and activities you can be involved in; all out in the cold, cold weather.  It was around zero degrees Fahrenheit all the time we were there.  They had a slide to go down and carriages that horses pulled to take you on a ride.  They were rehearsing for the opening of the Snow and Ice Festival and you could watch some of that.  They had a huge screen to show some programs and advertisements on. 

Our first sight of the Ice World from the parking lot.

Colorful Ice World!

One of about 15-20 carriages you could ride in.

From inside the warming house after I got the camera unfrozen.

The jumbo tron area.

David with the pagoda in the background.

We were going to see an ice skating show while we were there, but Peter said that it was cancelled and said that we could see a Russian Dancing show instead.  We all thought that would be cool to see, so we agreed to see it at 6:30 p.m. and then we would go eat.  Well… they were dancers and they might have been Russian, but it was not what comes to you mind when you think of Russian Dancers!  It was closer to Las Vegas burlesque!  The music was loud and the costumes rather skimpy (I really had a hard time with seeing all the skin and thinking of the temperature).  After the third act, we decided we had had enough and got up and walked out.  We decided to go to the bus to wait for the rest of them.

When they all got back to the bus, we went to a restaurant and had a typical Chinese dinner.  It was pretty late at night to be eating, but that’s what it was.  Back at the hotel, we just went to our room.