We went to the Great Wall early in the trip.
Anna with a genuine smile.
Kari had the greatest faces.
Chen, thinking he had come to stake his claim on the wall.
I tried to convince the girls to take a precarious looking picture or two... didn't quite end up as I had hoped. If only they would have been willing to try a pull-up hanging off the wall... could have been epic. :)
Chen gave me the closest to what I was looking for.
Chen again was ”speaking my language.“ :)
Here it even looks like they might attempt to push Abby (middle) off! They decided against it though.
The girls picked it up a little here. A little more dangerous.
I contemplated peeing off the wall just say I had peed off the Great Wall, then I remembered I had already done it when I spent the night on the Great Wall only a few months before! Therefore I can say, I've peed off the Great Wall. :)
Chen trying to speed up the process.
Another classy face. Going up steep steps!
Since I can't snowboard or ski, I had to start getting creative in order to get my adrenaline fix in. So, on one of the steepest parts of the wall, and against the wishes of Anna and Kari, I jumped as high as I could. It was dangerous but fun. ;)
I got out my telephoto lens to mess around.
Some mild Chinglish
Tianamen Square scultpures.
We of course tried to model the sculpures too. I felt pretty Asian.
We went to the forbidden city and it had snowed. This made an exciting second time visit for me. And, after laughing at the ridiculously stupid looking panda hats the hundreds of tourists were buying, we of course bought 4 of our own.. posers I know.!
This kid must have been thinking, “4 American pandas! And so tall too. Unbelievable!”
Jumping/Frolicking
Kari's creativity
Outside the main entrance of the Forbidden City
The Forbidden city also had a “kissing tree” or “tree of love.” There obviously isn't anything much cuter than 2 pandas kissing. Good work girls!
This is Kari - she is teaching English in Korea for the year and came to visit for the first 5 days of our break. She graduated last year with me, and is really good friends with Anna.
Inside a room in the Forbidden City. Unfortunately you can't go in to have a closer look or jump on the Emporer's bed or something. Bummer.
Delicious Chinese food from my favorite restaurant in Beijing.
Typically “babies” use split pants in China because they are cheaper than diapers, but this kid looks to be seven or eight years old... you would have hoped he would have been potty trained by now, I mean the squatti-potty is pretty easy after all.. :)
We trudged through the heavy snow to get to church on Sunday morning.
More snow.
There was plenty of snow, and the campus guards made a snowman. Anything to do to pass the time.
Lunch after church.
Delicious (though a little oily) garlic noodles with pork and green beans, and a beef noodle soup in the background.
We left from the Beijing Railway Station while it was snowing to head to Harbin
We ate a healthy McDonalds dinner before the 11 hour train ride.
The train according was actually pretty nice despite the fact that it was probably 80 degrees all night and we were all prepping for negative temperatures. Lets just say many of us slept with minimal clothing to fight the heat!
The beds, though a little narrow, surpisingly provided enough room for the three giants.
We stayed at a synogogue converted into a hostel in Harbin. The Star of David was all over the place.
Don't worry, it wasn't co-ed living spaces. The other rooms just weren't ready. :)
The interior was beautiful.
The girls made it more beautiful. ;)
More stars.
Dan, looking like Stalin in the hostel lounge.
So I might have been a little nervous about my camera freezing and breaking under the cold conditions. Therefore i kept “my baby” in my jacket most of the time while outside. Thankfully I had no problems.
It was cold - ”eyelash and nosehair freezing cold“ (Don't worry, I spared you of having to see any nose hair pictures).
We went for the opening day of the annual Harbin Ice Lantern Festival where dozens of magnificent sculptures have been constructed. The sculptures are different every year!
Layering was most definitely a necessity - most of us had 4+ layers on to protect us from the cold.
There were all sorts of structures - all unique and beautiful in their own way.
I was a little cold, if you can't tell!
China Red.
So we went to a local restaurant and asked for some dish that was a Harbin specialty. The result was that bowl you see in the middle of the table. And...
This was the very first “ingredient” that was pulled out of it. Geoff's face was one of terror.
This item made an appearance soon after. This looks vaguely familiar too... oh yeah, its because Dan already has a picture like this....
Just in case you missed the first one, this was taken before the Great Wall overnight adventure at the hostel.
Later that day, Eric played a nice practical joke on Geoff by putting this chicken foot under his blankets before bed. How thoughtful of him.
Posing again.
They wree a little confused.
No frozen eye brows or eye lashes... yet...
And then the cold got its way and not only the eye lashes but also the hair were victims.
Intricate designs
Kana, a friend of ours who now lives in Canada but has spent the last month and a half in Beijing, wanted to help out!
Some sort of bird I thnk.
Kinda hard to pose here, so Anna just held it's hand.
We found a slide.
Dorothy
Eyes closed and everything.
Kana
Dan B.
Abby
Anna, casually and fearlessly sliding with the legs crossed.
And then Dan G, having to find some way to outdo all of us and bring some excitement to the kiddie slide. :)
Geoff, not wanting to be outdone, held his $300+ camera in one hand and attempted to ride it standing up. Thankfully nothing (bones or equipment) were broken.
Mice!
This lion somehow got ahold of Chen's arm!
It wouldn't let go. You can even see the blood!
Then, when all hope looked to be lost...
Geoff came in, ripped Chen's arm free from the ferocious mouth of the lion, and jumped on the beast's back in victory! (All these pictures were taken right outside the door of a major bank, by the way, and we feared that the guards would come and yell at us at any time)
Unique
Sharp
It got so cold, one's vision gets really hazy! (But more importantly, this is why I brought a tripod.)
Dinner at a Russian restaurant.
Very Russian
Cozy
One of the main streets at night.
One could see the sculptures much more clearly at night.
A magnificent church called St. Sophia Church that we walked to at night. It is the largest Eastern Orthodox Church in the Far East.
Experimenting with the shutter speed and lighting of my camera.
A different view.
I learned that, “The Byzantine style church is so beautiful, it is said to look as if it had been made by God's hands. In fact, St. Sophia means 'God's wisdom.'”
Another steeple on the other side of the church square.
Pigeons perched on the sides of the church
A day time shot.
My attempt at being creative. Not exactly what I wanted...
And, while the outside of the church was absolutely gorgeous, the inside was rather anticlimactic - it has been converted into a historic art museum and most of descriptions were all in Chinese. :(
The walls and ceiling were still pretty cool though.
While the girls liked the “artsy” part of the museum, I got a little bored and began experimenting with my camera
Then Anna might have gotten bored too... :)
Night shots
While we could have eaten at many different restaurants, a local recommended this small little hole in the wall noodle place and we ended up eating 3 meals there! The numbers on the wall are the prices of the food. The exchange rate is 6.8 RMB to US$1. Therefore, we ate meals of about a dollar. Not bad.
We travel basically as far north as you can in China, and ran into Wal-Mart! Geoff and Abby look tired, Chen dumbfounded, Anna confused, and Dan... worshipping...? Come on Dan!
Cotton candy in China? Another odd site.
Everybody wanted some. Geoff was so enticed that he didn't even look at the camera. “Sugar,” he thought, “Sugar!”
Abby tempted him a little.
Then he was victorious.
Eric tried the sugar-glazed fruit shish kabobs.
It really just looks like he's kissing them, but I assure you he ate them. :)
Then we found a “sledding slope”
Geoff
Anna
Eric
Going strong
Almost losing it. (Notice the shish kabob in his right hand.. good thing he didn't impale himself!!)
Anna and Eric had brought my snowboarding pants all the way from America, and I was intent on using them!
It was fun....
Until I almost ran into Anna and broke my camera (let alone her arm).
Dan round 2
Fearless...
wait a second...
uh oh...
Ouch!
Well, I guess since Dan loves baseball, we'll just say “Safe!”
The Chinese are great at synchronized diving. Therefore, Geoff and I thought we would show off our synchronization and slide together.
It was fun.
We thankfully didn't crash
And even managed to get some goofy faces out of it too.
Violins
Taking over the sculptures!
Ice horses. I think you'd need a saddle to survive.
The Terracotta
Close up
Egypt comes to China
Well they might be wicked and paganistic, but they were sure beautiful at night.
See that -40 marker? Good. Well, it wasn't quite that cold, but still very chilly. The low that night was at least -16 F !
Since it was the opening night, there was an impressive fireworks show that “warmed up” the night sky. It was probably about 20 minutes long, and momentarily distracted our toes and fingers which were turning numb.
Oooh, ahhh!
The cold unfortunately killed my camera long before the fireworks, but thankfully Geoff's still had some steam. Great pictures!
Then we went to the tiger park! Home to 900 Siberian tigers.
Preparing for the worst...
Also a little nervous.
At the gate, they tried to convince us that there was nothing to fear. He looks so cute doesn't he!
Another adorable tigress.
As we entered they watched us closely
Be careful buddy, or you might lose not only your camera but your hand too!
They prowled up and down the fence waiting for....
FOOD! (That thankfully wasn't us)
Great shot by Geoff of the feast.
We also saw them fight.
They were definitely cute at times too.
and they also slept as kings of the hill
Even 15 feet in the air we were “protected” by bars
I wouldn't want to be this guy.
Constantly having tigers chasing you because you carried the live chickens to their imminent death would be a scary job!
Back to being terrifying. Quite a large jawspan.
Intimidating for sure.
Then there was a chance to feed them.
Hungry hungry.
Dan B even bought a live chicken!
He was pretty excited about it too. Check out his face.
He initially tried to feed it to these two tigers. It turned out they weren't hungry enough though and the chicken selling lady asked him to go to a different predator.
So we did, and this tiger WAS hungry!
If you can't tell from the last few pictures, that fence that his paws are on was probably 8-9 feet tall, and his shoulders are above it!
Remember that large jawspan? It showed its power here!
Pretty cool shot with the snow and everything.
Not too much left after the initial chomp!
Aslan?
The Lion and the Lamb...
Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals." - Revelation 5:5
Black panther. :)
I told you the tigers' jawspan was huge!
We were content in his mouth until he started biting down!
Classic Dorothy. :)
The cold weather forced Chen to dress like a ninja.
We went to a small bakery. For some reason they thought it was big though because they divided their bakery into “regions.”
The bread region was also very small.
The cakes were also rather interesting. Not sure what to make of this one...
Also a little strange.
Lots of fruit toppings too. I personally just prefer some a Dairy Queen ice cream cake..
but.. whatever floats your boat I guess.
With Russia being so close to Harbin, there is a great Russian architecture influence on all the buildings.
Since my camera died at the ice festival, Anna, Eric and I took some last minute shots by the train station
We figured that if we traveled all that way to one of the coldest places on earth, then we should probably take a few pictures together!
Some of the best Chinglish I've seen in awhile. Any suggestion of what “baby soldier” means here?
Train stations in China are always packed. Seats are hard to come by.
There is class between Geoff and that back wall. All the gentlemen in that small room are “on display” smoking themselves to death. I think if I were a smoker, I'd save money by hot boxing in that room from all the second-hand smoke. Disgusting!
This was a funny site. Four Americans in Harbin, one of the northern most cities in China, sitting on the dirty trainstation floor eating America' KFC chicken as dozens of Chinese people walked by multiple times staring at us.
Geoff in his long underwear during the trainride back with no shame whatsoever. I'm not sure what Geoffrey was trying to do here... lick an ear?
Hanging out during the 11 hour ride.
Eric didn't take a shower for 4 days. Notice the lovely dandruff in his hair. Yuck!
Then, after a shower, a haircut with a brownish red hairdye, Eric sat on his sleeping bag in my room sipping tea and ”smoking“ a candy cane. Priceless.
At another cathedral. This one's in Beijing this time.
One of the last things we did before they left was take a trip to “eat street” which has all sorts of exotic food.
Chen offered to buy anything Anna would eat
So we ate scorpions!
Anna force feeding Eric a scorpion.
A delicious tale.
Then... they tried to coax/peer pressure me into doing it.
I gave in.
Then we turned to the “big guns,” but the starfish, seahorse, large scorpions and bugs didn't suit our fancy.
Then, during the last night, we cooked one final scrumptious maple twist. By far my favorite breakfast AND dessert treat, and one that I required that Anna make with me while they were here. A great way to end an amazing two weeks. :)
