Back in Beijing

We had no craving for duck yet, but we did have a craving for our favorite Heilongjiang restaurant. Especially their specialty:

Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival

Here they finally are: our pictures from the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival! We apologize for the picture quality -- the battery of our camera* died on Friday (due to the cold) and we had to make do with our cell phone cameras.

The thermometer at the entrance was tweaked a bit to make the tourists feel warm. It was probably about -20 centigrade.



This is what A looks like when seen through an ice block.



And this is what she looks like when making fun of Chinese girls posing for pictures.



And this is why we put up with the cold and slipperiness and bad traffic behavior (we saw > 6 accidents in 3.5 days) and dishonest taxi drivers that Harbin also has to offer.












* It is ironic that the camera died on Friday, the day before our 7th anniversary. Apparently the people who gave this as a wedding present (ok, we bought it ourselves from the money they gave us) did not think our marriage would last 7 years.

We finally found it!

Friday's ice sculptures were just a warm up. And yesterday, we could not find the real thing because a certain guide book gives directions for how to get there IN SUMMER.

But today, we are successful. And cold. And soon we'll be drunk. Which is good, because A's father told her way back when that you don't realize you are freezing to death when drunk.

Hello From Harbin

It turns out that we were scared shitless for all the wrong reasons. It is not unbearably cold so far -- just -18 centigrade now at 10:30pm. We have also found that wearing more clothes really works to keep you warm. So tonight we went ice sculpture viewing wearing three pants and four sweaters plus coat each.











However, there are still plenty of reasons to be scared shitless. Harbin is one huge skating rink, covered with a thin layer of snow. Walking on the snow is doable, but sometimes the snow is worn away (or, in fact, they have many people working to remove the snow) and it is extremely slippery underneath. The cross walks are especially slippery, which is great fun because the cars don't take any notice of pedestrians, nor do they seem at all concerned about their ability to brake suddenly on these icy roads.

But the scariest thing about Harbin is going to have to be this:



Offering condoms and related paraphernalia is common in any hotel that we have seen in China. But the fact that here, men don't even have to bring their own sperm is completely new!

Scared shitless

We're off to Harbin for the weekend to visit the ice sculpture festival. And we're scared...

Will the long underpants with corduroy trousers be sufficient to keep our butts from freezing off? Will we be able to find a hotel, or will we have to sleep on the street in temperatures of -30 degrees centigrade? Will the cold that we have been struggling with for three weeks turn into a life threatening disease?

Stay tuned to find out.

Quiz time!

Here are the five dishes we ate on Thursday and Friday for dinner. One of them is home cooked. Can you tell which one it is?

1. 
   
   
2. 
   
   
3. 
   
   
4. 
   
   
5. 
   
   
   
   

Leave your guess in the comments!

Amanda's home province

Unfortunately, we forgot our camera. Fortunately, Amanda's cell phone can take pictures!

We think this restaurant should win the prize for best decoration. The same pattern appeared on the chair covers, door curtains, waitress uniforms and even the walls in front of the restaurant.

Frans wants to have a shirt like this, too, so he can wear that instead of his "hideous sweater".

Maybe this food is our favorite so far.