24 January, 2004
The streets were quickly covered with white. Where we walked, we left wet footprints on the ground.
 A snowy street. |
 Lots of trees. |
I skiied the entire time and forwent all the other activities - shame on me! :D To my delight I had no difficulty remembering how to ski even though it has been over ten years since I last set foot on a ski slope. It was wonderful, rushing down the slope at insane speeds with the powder snow blowing in my face. Despite the temperature being below -20ºC, I didn't feel the least cold.
I paid a woman entirely too much money (¥20) to take this Polaroid of me in a very dishevelled state - scarf sliding down and hat sliding off and all. I was only barely able to make a transaction alone in Putonghua, let alone haggle. In my haste to get on the slope, I'd forgotten to take a camera with me!
I didn't go to see the sculptures, so all I have is this rubbish photo of the biggest one. According to my parents, who actually got close, they were a bit melted and deformed - but from here, this snow maiden is still quite beautiful!
After that we went to see Emperor Pu Yi's (溥儀) fake palace. I was told that he was the last Qing emperor - although he was a puppet emperor, controlled by the Japanese, who forced him to build a palace in Changchun and live here. Poor man seemed quite unhappy. From the wax models of him, he looks rather like the ex-Financial Secretary Anthony Leung...but that's quite irrelevant. :D
We weren't allowed to take photos inside, so I just have this bad photo of the outside.
The inside had mostly European decor -
it seemed rather out of place so far from Europe. The corridors were
far too narrow for all the tourists, though! We saw lots of pictures of
Pu Yi and his family inside. Somehow a person doesn't seem quite so
emperor-like when you can see what he actually looked like instead of
imagining a very royal person sitting in a very royal palace.
Not surprisingly, the most beautiful room in the entire house was decorated in Japanese style. It had a lovely view over the garden. No wonder Pu Yi was unhappy - these invaders came, seized control of his country, and even took the best room in the house!
After that we went to see the Changchun Film City. That place needs a renovation - the whole compound had a deserted, decadent feel to it. We saw very outdated special effects there. I didn't enjoy that much, so I won't talk about it, though here are two photos from there.
Some of the streets in Changchun had cute snowflake street-lamps. I was very amused - despite its name of Changchun/Eternal Spring, it doesn't deny that it's a very snowy place.
Not surprisingly, the most beautiful room in the entire house was decorated in Japanese style. It had a lovely view over the garden. No wonder Pu Yi was unhappy - these invaders came, seized control of his country, and even took the best room in the house!
After that we went to see the Changchun Film City. That place needs a renovation - the whole compound had a deserted, decadent feel to it. We saw very outdated special effects there. I didn't enjoy that much, so I won't talk about it, though here are two photos from there.
 Lion at the entrance. |
 Lan Kwai Fong? |
Some of the streets in Changchun had cute snowflake street-lamps. I was very amused - despite its name of Changchun/Eternal Spring, it doesn't deny that it's a very snowy place.
We left Changchun station at 6 pm. We
would arrive in Harbin by 10pm, ready for bed.
All photos, graphics, layout and text on the following pages are © Denise Chan 2004, unless otherwise stated; please ask before using any of them. My email is denise at idenise dot net.
(Feel free to use any photo you like as wallpaper on your desktop, or your own personal use - just don't take them and use them on a website or other publication without appropriate credit.)
The dragon in the title graphic is a scanned ink drawing of my own, and the font used is 'Chinese Takeaway' by Pizzadude.
The decorative pattern used for the top corners was copied from a window frame.
The tree background is from a photograph I took on the train from Harbin to Beijing.