I realized that I have failed to mention the Disney themed ice park that I visited two days ago. This is a major omission. On Wednesday I spent part of my evening exploring Zhaolin Park's ice/light sculptures. Before entering I really had no idea what I was in for... Basically the entire park (maybe 5 acres) was filled with larger than life Disney themed ice buildings and sculptures. There was a section for pretty much every Disney movie you can think of. It was an impressive display and it was obviously constructed with great care and at great expense. We're talking a full-on Disney world in ice. To top things off, pretty much everybody at the park rented little 3-wheel scooters (the kind that handicapped people in the US use) to motor around the park. God knows why, but it added another level of ridiculosness to the whole escapade.
Ok, on to today... I spent the morning on a quest to find the Japanese Germ Warfare museum. Once again, I was misled by some poor Lonely Planet directions (my theory is that the Lonely Planet writer drunk himself into a stupor to ward off the cold while he was writing the Harbin section). After practicing a little Chinese on unsuspecting pedestrians I made my way through the freezing cold to the Germ Warfare base. It was a pretty cool museum, but I had high expectations and was a little disappointed. I guess I've been to some very well-done genocide-related museums (in the US and Israel) and this one seemed less well-planned. That having been said, I really enjoyed the museum and I also had a fun time in the neighborhood. I checked out this one outdoor market nearby that was awesome. It seemed like everybody in town was bustling around preparing for Chinese New Year (and by preparing, I mean buying as much food and fireworks as they could carry). The scene was made even more comical by the immense amounts of clothing everybody was wearing. It looked like the whole population had turned out in sumo suits for the day...
Today's other expedition was to Harbin's Ice and Snow Park on Sun Island. Now, with all of the snow/ice sculpture parks its easy to get confused, but this one is the mother of them all! I made it out to the ice park just before sunset. I wanted to take a bunch of pictures in daylight and then compare them with the night pictures (at night the entire place gets lit up by brightly colored lights embedded in the blocks of ice.) Anyways, I had a terrific time wandering around this city of ice buildings and lights snapping pictures and generally being a tourist. A couple of things of note:
(1) Camels do not belong in Harbin. Nobody should ride them around the ice park for any reason. Chinese people are crazy.
(2) I would have gladly sold out on all of my morals just to feel my feet this evening. I was so cold that I cracked and took refuge in the little heated glass coffeehouses where they force you to buy obscenely over-priced hot chocolate). The sad thing is that I know I would do it again.
Ok, that's it for today from Harbin!
- Jon
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I gotta say that I can't even imagine how cold it is/was in Harbin. Today, in Beijing at the Temple of Heaven, it was stupidly cold. After a mere 10 minutes outside I was swearing like a sailor and begging the guide to take us inside--my fingers and toes were past numb...they were like rocks on fire ramming themselves into walls. And then in Shanghai, when we got back, it was STILL stupid cold. And it was (they say...) zero degrees celsius. You are a brave soul, Sir Greenberg. I hope Shanghai heats up enough in a couple of days to make your return a warm and welcome one.
Miss you!
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