25 January, 2004 - Part Two
Personally, I was cold enough, standing there in all my gear in the middle of a frozen river, but they didn't seem to mind.
 These boats are frozen into the river - they're not going anywhere until the spring! |
 Out on the river, you only had to brush aside the snow to see the frozen (and scarily transparent) river. I kept imagining the ice breaking. I wasn't sure I wanted to swim as well. |
 This lady was waving at her audience. |
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 One old lady had to be helped onto the diving block, but handled the cold water just fine. |
 Partially frozen river. |
As if that wasn't quite enough snow - we
went to see MORE snow sculptures after that! Near sundown (about
4:30pm), the sculptures are bathed in a sort of orangey glow and the
whole effect is quite lovely.
We left at sundown to go to the next destination - ice lanterns.
They somehow embed fluorescent lights into the things they build with blocks of ice - and at night, when everything is lighted up, they are amazing! I have never seen SO much ice in one place before. It was like being in a gigantic freezer.
According to the tour guide, the idea first started when Harbin villagers, too poor to afford proper lanterns, had the bright idea of putting them inside blocks of ice.
Freezer or not, I've never seen so much ice in one place before! Surprisingly, my digicam took it all in good humour. It was probably feeling embarrassed about passing out that morning while taking photos of the snow sculptures...
After a whole day running around among snow and ice, I was more than ready to flop into my bed.
 Shenzhou 5 yet again. |
 Dragon at sunset. |
 Horse and cart - taken while I was riding in another horse and cart! |
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 Arctic fox and me. I really like this photo! That fur is really nice to touch. |
 Goat with a cart. Or is it a sheep? |
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 The Three Gorges Dam - in ice! |
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 We got a hot coffee, here. |
 To celebrate the Year of the Monkey! |
We left at sundown to go to the next destination - ice lanterns.
They somehow embed fluorescent lights into the things they build with blocks of ice - and at night, when everything is lighted up, they are amazing! I have never seen SO much ice in one place before. It was like being in a gigantic freezer.
According to the tour guide, the idea first started when Harbin villagers, too poor to afford proper lanterns, had the bright idea of putting them inside blocks of ice.
 There is no escaping from the Shenzhou 5. |
 There was a maze around the rocket - I guess it is supposed to represent the nine planets and their orbits. |
 A closeup. |
 It's not a small rocket. |
 An ice ship. |
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 I have no idea what this is. It looks like a frozen haystack (which, by the way, I saw plenty of during the train ride). |
 Snow dinosaurs! |
 Snow shark! |
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 This is an ice carving - made out of a single block of ice. Lots of countries sent teams to enter the ice-carving competition. The sculptures are all magnificent. |
 Pegasus. |
 Phoenix. |
 Echoes of the Shenzhou 5 again. I like the shapes in this one though. |
 Rows upon rows of sculptures! |
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 Creepy panda slide (this is the stair side of it). |
Freezer or not, I've never seen so much ice in one place before! Surprisingly, my digicam took it all in good humour. It was probably feeling embarrassed about passing out that morning while taking photos of the snow sculptures...
After a whole day running around among snow and ice, I was more than ready to flop into my bed.
 My lovely, lovely bed. |
 The view from Room 914 at the Shangri-La in Harbin. Not much to see, is there? In the mornings you could see lots of steam floating past - probably from the kitchens. |
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.