Published by Swiss James on 21 Jan 2008
So James, how was Harbin?
I’ll bloody tell you how it was- it was T-RiffiC!
Emma and I were getting really scared about the whole weather situation as the plane started to descend over snowy fields. As we taxiied to the stand she said
“Look at all of those rocks”
“Umm, I think that’s ice they’ve chipped off the runway”
But you know what, if you wrap up warm with loads of layers, it’s all just hype and the cold is no bother.
Yes your breath freezes and forms ice crystals in your nostrils, yes my eyelashes got covered in frost, and yes the tip of my finger fell off and was eaten by pigeons- but at the end of the day we still had plenty fun.
Iha dal ove lyt ime att hef est iva l.
The Harbin Snow and Ice festival was first held in <insert historical fact here> by the <probably people who ran fruit stalls or something?- check this later>. Over the years the festival has grown and now attracts <there were definitely more than 20 people there, but need to get more accurate figure> people over the course of <Seriously, why didn’t I pick up a pamphlet or something? Now I’m going to have to trawl through wikipedia looking all this crap up>.
There are a few smaller festivals in parks around the city, but the big boy- the DisneyWorld of frozen treats is located on an island across from the main city. Here they build a mini ice town every year with a huge snow Buddha, palaces from the Forbidden City, a Westminster Abbey, Stone Henge (which is cheating since it’s just basically a few massive blocks of ice), the Acropolis, plus lots and lots of stuff related to the Beijing Olympics.
Assuming you can get your breath in those sorts of conditions, the things these people can do with ice are breathtaking. They’re solid enough to walk and clamber all over- in fact some of them have slides down the side for <ahem> kids.
More tomorrow.