How to lose your face in T-10 minutes...

Nihao everyone,

I'm back from my weekend retreat to Harbin in Northern China. I flew there Friday night at about 9pm with two of my coworkers from other campuses and met two other friends from Beijing and two new friends from other schools in China. Turns out our hotel was down the street from the famous Russian shopping area as well as the Disney Ice World, the cable cars across the river, and the square where there is a monument for flood victims that was Stalin's last work in China--or something like that (our friend from Nanjing arrived earlier than us and went on a walk and found all of the sites and read the Lonely Planet about 10 times so he was elected tour guide and we just followed along for the ride!).

Anyhoo, on Saturday we got up and had good ol' McDonald's for breakfast and then took the cable car across the frozen river
where we got to watch horse-drawn carriages going across and people riding ice bikes and ice chairs on the river as well as sliding down a ramp on inner tubes. I am not a huge fan of cable cars and was definitely wondering how cold cables can get before they sNaP!! Then we found a driver to take us to this Tiger park that you can take a bus through and watch the tigers be fed live animals that you buy for them! We drove around watching the tigers in their natural habitat and then suddenly this SUV pulled up that has a metal cage all around it. The driver started doing doughnuts and driving erratically to keep the tigers moving and then with his one free hand he grabbed a chicken from the passenger seat, opens his door a little bit, and flings the chicken out while a tiger panted literally less than a foot away. The tigers would jump up onto the truck to get at the chickens and then fight off the other cats to enjoy their prize. It was bizarre to say the least. I really have no words to describe how insane it was--safety never comes into the equation in China but all I could think was that the driver was totally iNsAnE. Then later on another truck came by that only had cages over its tires. There was a man in the back seat who opened the door and basically just put this white little bleating lamb into one tiger's mouth. The tiger then started to run away and was chased by at least four tigers. It sounds horribly gruesome but really wasn't since it all happened so fast. Later on there were about 25 tigers all trying to get at the carcass so all I could see was a mass of orange and black backs. When the tigers finally parted all you could see was a little bit of a bloody carcass that one tiger was basically sitting and munching on to keep the other tigers away. Oh, and there were Ligers in other parts of the park---LIGERS!!! And there was a woman sitting in the gift shop area with an IV drip that was hanging from a window sill... very strange but really it takes a lot to shock me anymore!

After that we went to see some snow sculptures in one park. Most of them had been damaged from the hot spell last week but still they were fun to look at. I ended up not wearing enough layers on my legs and nearly got frost-bitten which made the rest of my afternoon uncomfortable and annoying. In the evening we ate a great Chinese restaurant beside our hotel and went to Disney Ice World. There was a little roller coaster and some other rides that were totally fun since the park was pretty much empty. There were also ice slides that were really fun to go on. The whole thing was glowing at night which was really pretty...treacherous in parts due to the ice, but pretty. We also went on the ferris wheel there to see what parts of the park we had missed which almost sent me into a panic attack since I hate heights and I especially hate being inside dangling capsules of metal in -30 weather! (I'm smiling here but thinking: "The cable's gonna break, the cable's gonna break, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!!!!")

The next day we went to see a temple and pagoda in the area.
It was really pretty inside and there was a huge gold Buddha that stood in an open courtyard area. The scene was very interesting since there was a huge ferris wheel off in the distance that looked odd but beautiful next to the temple rooftops.





Then we went to Polar World which is an indoor aquarium. We got to feed fish by hand and seals, too---I've never been that close to a seal before. You could almost touch them in these open tanks and we got to throw little fish at them and make them do tricks. If you tap on the side of your fish container with the metal tongs they will bark and slap their sides and if you make a circle with the fish in the air they will turn around. Too cute but sad that they were in such a small tank.

Then we went to the place that I had been waiting for which was the Snow and Ice World. The place was deserted since technically the festival was over by the time we got to Harbin. We got to walk around with almost no other tourists on the site through this GIGANTIC, sleepy ice town of HUGE ice sculptures. They had cranes that lifted the blocks of ice up to the tops of the structures which was impressive to see. I'm just gonna post the pictures since I am exhausted STILL and have no words to explain the magnitude of their iciness!