Ice & Snow Festival: Harbin, China

Iceland, China, Italy, USA - never thought we could be in four countries at the same time!  It is possible at Harbin's Ice & Snow Festival where they replicated an Icelandic Church, the Great Wall of China, the Roman Colosseum and the Empire State Building using ice! 

Our expectations were far exceeded after seeing the Ice & Snow Festival in Harbin, China!  Located about 350 miles south of Russia, about 450 miles east of Mongolia and maybe 375 miles north of North Korea, sits one of China's largest cities (top 10), Harbin!  As you will see in the pictures below, Haerbin is known for it's beautiful snow and ice sculptures during the winter months. The festival begins in early January and will last as long as the weather allows - sometimes to March!

After some research, I learned that nearly 10,000 workers were employeed to build the ice and snow sculptures, which required about 590,000 square feet of ice and 492,000 square feet of snow!  How in the world did they do it?!  Swing saws were used to carve ice into blocks, taken from the frozen surface of the Songhua River.  Chisels, ice picks and various types of saws were then used by ice sculptors to carve out large scaled ice sculptures (see pictures below).  These artists worked day and night to complete their masterpieces!  Deionised water can also be used, producing ice blocks as transparent as glass to make clear sculptures rather than translucent ones.  Multicolored lights were also used to give color to the ice, creating a spectacular vision when lit up, especially at night!




Replica of the Hallgrimskirkja Church in Reykjavik, Iceland)


According to organizers, the structure pictured above is the tallest ice sculpture in China (46 meters / 151 ft) and was made with 12,000 meters (over 39,000 ft) of ice!


Roman Colosseum

 

Nearing -30 degrees Celsuis

Snow Fox

Tiger Park: Harbin, China

While in Harbin, we decided to also check out the Siberia Tiger Park!  Ava loved seeing the animals and was very intrigued by all of the tigers, lions and other large cats. 

When we first got to the park, we had to wait for the bus to drive us around the park.  Finally they said the bus was here and we could go outside.  We walked out and this truck with chairs on the back pulled up.  We looked at each other and thought, "ummm, this does NOT seem safe!"  As we were about to climb on, a Chinese man tapped our shoulder and pointed over to a group of actual buses!  We all let out a big sigh of relief and had to laugh!  It just seemed so China to ride on something like this through a tiger park!    

At first the park was a little boring.  We saw lots of tigers while on the bus, but it always seemed like we were on the wrong side of the bus to get a good picture and most of the tigers were just laying around.  Luckily Katie got some great pictures to share with us!  



One way to block traffic!

After the bus ride, we were able to walk along a skywalk type thing and watch the tigers play.  Here we could also buy a live animal to feed to the tigers!  There were several different options with varying prices, from a live chicken for $10 (US) to cattle for just over $450 (US).  We decided that we had to at least buy a chicken for this unusual experience.  It was crazy how quick that chicken was snatched up and taken away by one of the tigers. At least it was a quick death.

any last words Mr. Chicken?

About to "walk the plank"

Hope it's a quick death Mr. Chicken



Chasing his tail!!

Overall, the tiger park was worth it and we would recommend going if you are in Harbin.  You don't need a lot of time there - 1 to 1.5 hours is enough.

Ice & Snow Festival 2: Harbin, China

In addition to the large festival (the Ice & Snow Festival from the previous post), there are ice and snow scultptures throughout the city!  Our hotel was located just across from a "walking street" which was adorned with several scultpures! 

 

Zhaolin Park, located within walking distance from our hotel, is the host to a smaller scale ice festival.  Just because it is smaller does not mean that it is any less spectacular though!  This festival - the Ice Lantern Festival - is celebrating 50 years!    

Ava loved the ice slides!!!



Ryan did too :)



Home for the Holidays

There is nothing like being "home for the holidays"!  And it seems like no matter how old we are, it is still so comforting to be with our family, in Michigan and Ohio, for Christmas!  

We had exactly 3 weeks in Michigan/Ohio and boy were we busy!  However, it was very important for us to see as many people as we could while we were home!  So thank you to everyone who rearranged their schedules and were flexible so we could see you!  We apologize to those we didn't get to see, as it was just impossible to see everyone, but we will be home soon (actually, in 5 months) and we will for sure see you when we return!

Time flew by while we were home, but we tried to take advantage of the time we had.  Grocery shopping was especially fun even though we didn't need to buy a lot thanks to everyone cooking for us! :)  Of course we wanted to buy everything we saw though so it was very difficult to restrain ourselves.  We were able to see our dog, Bella, and that was wonderful!  We miss her so much, but it is clear that she is being well taken care of by her temporary family!  We also tried to enjoy a few nights out without Ava since those times are so rare here in China. 

It was so fun to see Ava with her grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends!  She put a smile on everyone's face and she already misses everyone so much!  She says "Mamou", "Bapa", "Nana" and "Papa" about 50 times per day now!  Good thing we have those Hallmark recordable books so she can hear their voices anytime she wants!

Here are just a few pictures from our time with friends/family!

Christmas is so fun with all of the kids!

We got to meet Natalie!!!

Ava wasn't quite sure what to think of Santa this year

Nana teaching Ava all about lipstick!

While home we surprised Ryan with tickets to a Detroit Lions game!  It ended up being a big game for them with the playoffs on the line.  Of course they lost, but it was close and a lot of fun!

Happy New Year everyone!

2 of my favorite kids!!!

What can I say, these munchkins are awesome!!!  These two had lots of fun together during the holidays - and it was so fun watching them!  Landen is already looking out for Ava - helping give her a bath, helping feed her, sharing his books and toys and holding her hand.  And Ava shows her appreciation by giving him a nice kiss on the cheek!  So looking forward to watching them grow up together and, of course, get into lots of mischief! :)