Harbin

Kris Arnold and I flew up to Harbin, near the Russian border, to see their annual Snow and Ice Festival. We quickly realized that if people had a second language, it was Russian, not English.
At the airport, we were trying unsuccessfully to find the right bus to take into the city, when we met Richard, our new hero (Richard the Rescuer). It turned out he was a Chinese student at Qingdao University who spoke good English and had a 10-hr layover. He helped us navigate from shuttle bus to city bus to our hotel, so  we adopted him and paid his way to the Festival.  This is a picture of the three of us on a horse drawn cart looking at the sights. Most of the clothes we are wearing were on loan from friends who knew how bitterly cold it would be, although Richard doesn't seem very concerned about the -14 deg weather.

 We saw the huge snow sculptures during the day. Then Richard had to leave us to make the return trip to the airport.

Recognize these characters?

This blog is fighting me and won't let me add any more pictures at the end, so these night pics are out of order.
The views at night are fantastic, with the life-size ice buildings lit up from inside. We were so glad we finally made it here!

Looking our from another carriage ride

So many spectacular sights!

 When our hands or toes got too cold we went inside to see an ice skating and acrobatics show.

 Another time we went into McDonald's for a hamburger.

 Neither Richard or Kris would go down the ice slide with me.

Here I come!

Ramming the person in from of me. Oops!