So here's a summary of what I've been doing from 23rd December to 31st December 2011! :)
So I arrived at the Singapore Changi Airport at 10pm and took the midnight flight. :)
I hate midnight flights because you can't get a proper sleep without waking up to eat the breakfast provided.
So by the time we reached Shanghai, it was in the morning.
The sky was actually dark when we arrived. And we had to catch a bus from the plane to the airport, leaving us shivering in the cold temperature (-3 Celsius). I was just wearing a t-shirt :3
And we had to wait for another 2 hours in the airport before we took a domestic flight to Dalian.
Upon reaching Dalian, we were brought to the Xinghai Square.
I wasn't listening to the tour guide so I really can't tell you what those footprints were.
And somehow, we were ambushed by pigeons.
I was walking away when this white pigeon landed on my shoulder.
I WAS TERRIFIED. because I had no idea how to get rid of it.
So I just kept walking away and shaking my head.
Eventually, the pigeon got bored and flew to someone else.
So apparently, the pigeons there love flying to humans.
All you had to do was to stand in the middle of the pigeons and put out your hand.
Within 5 seconds, a pigeon will fly towards your hand.
Yep. And they like to land on top of heads.
And we left Xinghai Square after being chased off by the pigeons.
I got a painting of myself before leaving ;)
And on to the Tiger Bay Themed Park.
Hmmm....
Did I mention that Dalian had their first snow a few hours before we landed?
Thus there were light snow at some of the places we went.
Fresh snow :)
My lovely pair of winter boots that I only got to wear once a year.
And there was someone swimming in the water!
Aren't they crazy? It's subzero out here and he's swimming in the waters.
Nanshan Street.
They say the houses here are built with Japanese style.
Me trying to act like a fish.
It was a pretty street. :)
And we went to the Russian Style Street.
Apparently, there weren't much photos on it because the sky was already dark.
Steamboat dinner :)
And off to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
The next day, we had our breakfasts in the lovely hotel.
Everyone approached us and asked if the two of them are twins.
Anyway, we traveled to Lushun City.
And visited a museum.
He's the only one really looking and reading the stuffs.
That's the museum.
Afterwhich, we returned to Dalian.
And we had some spare time before our dinner!
So we wandered around the hotel vicinity.
And bought ourselves ice-cream!
Eating ice-cream at -6 Celsius because the ice-cream won't melt ;)
And as if we weren't feeling cold enough.
I forgot the name of this .____.
But it's basically honey coated fruits.
So we bought the original type and tried.
Love the honey :)
Random photo of the beer.
It was Christmas Eve dinner.
The next day, we took the coach from morning to noon and reached Shenyang.
And off to some Palace visiting! :)
I love looking at the Chinese palaces.
And I love to listen to the history behind it.
However, I was pretty disappointed because the tour guide hastened the tour.
Well, he hastened the tour due to the cold weather and apparently the rest of the tour group simply wish to quickly get on the warm bus.
Oh well, so we left the palace!
And the sky was already getting darker so we just had our dinner and went back to the hotel.
The skies get dark really early. Their 4pm skies are like Singapore's 8/9pm skies.
Pretty bad to go sightseeing because the only time we have would be in the morning.
The next day, we went to visit the 12 Qing Emperor Statues.
The last emperor.
All of a sudden, we had boots and mine changed to white.
Yep, we bought snow boots so as to not slip on the snow.
And the snow in Shenyang had been around for a month or so. Thus, it's not really pretty and became more like ice.
Kangxi Emperor.
His statue looked exactly like the picture of him we saw in Beijing!
And after visiting this location, we traveled down to Changchun.
Before that, we had to visit a place.
The Shenyang Guaipo.
I still don't get the gravity of the place so I can't explain to you. Actually, no one can explain it.
But at the path, somehow it looked straight to me, but it's a slope. I have no idea how to explain it.
But that place definitely defies the law of gravity.
And you can best feel it when you're cycling or driving.
At one side, you need a lot of effort to cycle. And once you u-turn to the other side (10 cm away?) you can just go down to path without cycling.
Argh. I can't explain it!
So we reached Changchun and went skiing!
We skied till the sun went down.
Skiing in the dark like bosses :)
But like I mentioned above, the skies get dark really early.
So from the picture, it's probably about 3/4pm.
And once the sky became dark, that marked the end of the day.
The next day, we went to Jilin.
To view the pretty rime trees.
And fake flowers.
It really looked like it was snowing there because the "snow" from the rime trees came down when the wind blew.
It was a really pretty sight.
But it's a pity the weather wasn't really cold so there weren't much "snow" on the rime trees.
I would want to come back here again actually. Just to see the rime trees.
And we visited the deer farm.
I thought we would be going indoors so I didn't bring my hat or ear muffs along.
No pictures of the deer.
Because I refuse to take any pictures of the poor deers!
How can they just chop off their antler?
Urgh. Chinese medicine.
After that, we head back to the hotel.
And the next day, we took a 6 hour journey to Harbin.
HERE! I want to say something really important!
IT WAS SNOWING IN HARBIN WHEN WE ARRIVED.
YES SNOWING.
My first snow. Harbin first snow of the winter season.
I saw the snow from the bus.
And of course, when we alighted for lunch, it was still snowing.
Really light snow.
But really pretty.
Pretty much like the rain here in Singapore these few days, actually.
But when we came out after lunch, the snow had stopped.
Thank you so much for the light snow.
And not a snow storm.
Anyway after lunch, we had a tough day. Because we had to be out in the cold for quite some time.
And Harbin was pretty much -15 Celsius. (it was a warm winter season so it was pretty good for us!)
The next stop was Sun Island.
Yep, snow house! :)
Snow sculptures were everywhere!
I can't describe the beauty of the place here.
But the snow were pretty much man-made.
Remember I told you that Harbin had their first snow when we arrived and how light the snow was?
So obviously the huge amount of snow you see in the photos are man-made.
And dear snow man :)
Later in the night, we went to the Ice and Snow World.
The main attraction of the entire trip!
An ice fantasy world.
It was so cold and I didnt bring my mask (you'll see my pink mask coming to use soon).
Thus, I was having a rather red nose :(
And I was trying to cover my nose with my scarf half the time there.
But ain't the lights pretty?
And after spending so much time out in the cold, it's time to return to the hotel. :)
The next morning, we visited the St.Sophia Orthodox Church.
As you can see, we are really adapting to the weather there. No more hats for most of us :)
I love their Russian-themed buildings.
And we watched people diving into the icy waters.
Most of the waters have turned into ice but they cut out this piece to do winter swimming.
Something I would never ever ever do.
So since we can't do winter swimming, we'll be on the ice.
Trying to ski while sitting down.
And plus we slid down the ice slide.
That's probably the most fun thing we ever did that :)
Here's me all covered up from top to bottom!
And Harbin is a really nice place because they have random ice sculptures around. Or even ice houses!
You can walk on the streets and see an ice sculpture of the words "I love you".
Or some ice sculptures of random looking things.
We went to the Russian town.
And explored the houses.
An iron and sewing machine.
My grandma still uses that type of sewing machine though.
Playing with a fake well.
And we were given "passports" to stamp whenever we enter a new house.
It's like some primary school excursion trip! Because all that everyone cares about is the stamp.
Erm. Russian girls.
A room not for the young.
Nuff said.
After exploring the lovely Russian Town, we went to the Tiger Park.
To see some real tigers.
Tigers were like my favourite animals.
They still were when I was looking at them at the point of time.
And white tiger was my favourite of them all.
Leopard all curled up in a ball.
Snow tiger. Note the difference between the snow tiger and the white tiger!
White tiger.
Cheetah. This cheetah was so so so active!
There were snow lions too. But they didn't want to come out.
And best of all, liger.
Well, we actually didn't have the opportunity to see the liger because it was inside too.
So we walked past the empty cage, feeling disappointed.
Somehow, because we stayed back really long to look at the rest of the animals, someone from the back exclaimed that the liger came out and we got the chance to see it! :)
It's humongous!
After paying the tigers a visit, we went down to the Polar Museum.
The Beluga whale.
They were so pretty!!
And seemed really intelligent!
And there was a short performance.
However, the performance was cut short because the other whale was injured :(
We saw the people nursing the tail of the whale after the show.
:)
There were seals..
There penguins...
Polar bears.. (it stood up to pounce on the other polar bear and one fell into the water)
Wolves...
They were howling when we there.
Both the wolves.
And this thing stole my heart.
The arctic fox.
It's the cutest little thing I've ever seen!!!
And it's all over my phone and desktop wallpaper :3
But it kind of pained me to watch the animals in such a tiny area.
The wolves, cheetahs, beluga whales, and the polar bears all looked as if they were in such a cramped area.
And I could actually see tear stains on the arctic foxes.
I don't know, but I don't think the animals are really happy :(
Another church in Harbin! :)
And that was the last place we went in Harbin.
Don't you wonder what food we have in the North-East part of China?
This dish is on the table EVERY meal.
Suan cai. (sour vegetables)
We only had this for one of the meals, but it's my favourite! :)
AND DUMPLINGS!!!!
And that's the end! :)
BYE BYE!
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