Harbin (part 1)

me with one of Santa's tin men.

say hello to Santa's parade!

there was a long snow slide up near Santa's face. A snow lover's paradise.

These cozy pups sleep while their owners hawk them for rides over the snow.

This girl was excitedly doing Kung Fu with her friend, when Ned and I spotted her, and called her over to take a classic "Bode's Store Shot" with Ned. p.s. Ned takes photos with her Bode's shirt all over the world, then sends the photo as a postcard to Bode's store in Abiquiu, New Mexico. There is a Ned wall at Bode's store that features him in various exotic locations.

what will this be? all around us were square bricks of snow to be carved. It was a little disappointing as we thought they sculptures would all be finished of the opening day. When we walked over to this sculpture, the man was carving the statue's nipple. nice.

this statue is of Finnish woman in a sauna. One of our friend's here is Finnish, and she recently told us all saunas and how the Finnish love them. I never knew.

Choo Choo! Another Bode's shot.

We were bundled up in our warmest layers as we tootled our way through the Harbin Sun Park to see the many interesting, (some unfinished) and beautiful snow sculptures. As amazing as it felt to be among the many Russian and Chinese tourists in the park, in the coldest place I've ever been on earth, and to glimpse at the artistic genius of snow inspired art work, it was very cold,

and the pathways were icy, which lead to very careful walking, and after I fell hard on my elbow and left hip by slipping on the icy sidewalk, I practiced nervous and fearful walking.

We arrived at the Sun park by taking a cable car over the frozen river. It was peaceful and white all around us, and the cable car offered us a great view of the city. On the frozen river some men were ice fishing, some men were giving horse and sleigh rides across the river (which we took on the way back) some people were walking to get across, others were ice skating, or just laughing and sliding around in their boots. It was merry and wintry.

One of the highlights of the Sun park was finding a tea shop, and having two cups of green tea and some peanuts while defrosting my feet and hands and face by the radiator. This enabled us to keep going through the park in a pleasant, unfrozen state of being.

The Sun park is only part of the Snow and Ice festival, but it's the biggest section. Ned said this festival has been on his "to-do list" for 10 years, and I felt happy that he was able to cross that one off, and with me!

Afterwards, our visual and mental goblets were full, and we were ready for our cups of coffee at KFC, and a couple hours of getting warm and reading in our cozy hotel room.