Harbin on ice, 1/24/15

We get all geared up ready for a bitterly cold day, and head downstairs for breakfast.  We almost burned up while we ate.  We were wearing so many layers.  We met our guide at 9:00, and headed out on our tour of Harbin.  The first stop was downtown and St Sophia Cathedral.  It’s a huge Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the center of town, a remnant of the strong Russian influence in northern China.

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Next stop was the Siberian Tiger Reserve.  The guide told us there were over 1000 tigers at the site.  We loaded a bus and drove all around the property, and in and out of several large compounds, each full of tigers.  The highlight for me (and not so much for Judy) was the feeding of live chickens to the tigers.  Our bus parked in a large open area. Tigers began to wander toward us, and then a jeep covered in protective bars wheeled up and tossed a couple of live chickens out so we could watch the tigers catch and eat them.  It’s not something seen at many US zoos.

TIGER RESERVE VIDEO LINK

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zjzm0kpjkencraz/15.1.24Tiger1.MOV?dl=0

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We killed some time in “Polarworld”, watching a Sea Lion Show, and a Beluga Whale Show.  The whales performed what I would describe as synchronized water ballet with their trainers.  It was beautiful.

We were killing time until dusk so we could hit “Ice and Snow World” just before dark.  We had some time and I requested we have a chance to go down to the frozen Songhua River and watch some of the activities.  We weren’t disappointed.  There were cars racing on the ice, hockey, snowboarders pulled by large kites, and several other assorted ice activities.  The river is huge and it was frozen solid.

THREE LINKS TO FROZEN SONHUA RIVER ACTIVITIES

https://www.dropbox.com/s/14gch662qxsh2vf/15.1.24.Songhua1.MOV?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/p3hjorvs1df2nb5/15.1.24.Songhua2.MOV?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ndov73dk0vdx5u6/15.1.24.Songhua3.MOV?dl=0

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The climax of the day was the visit to “Ice and Snow World”.  This was the main reason we traveled to Harbin and we weren’t disappointed.  It was amazing.  There were so many amazing structures built and sculpted from ice and snow.  The site is huge and takes some time to walk through.  The temperature was near zero F.  Thankfully there wasn’t any wind.  We spent an hour and a half checking it out, and then met our guide and driver.  It was a really fun visit with some amazing sites.

VIDEO LINK TO “ICE AND SNOW WORLD”

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eh6uvbxivv2nyf3/15.1.24.Ice%20World.MOV?dl=0

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