Harbin is cold

Harbin holiday

Hello all, we have just been to Harbin and Mei has never wanted to go there because of the cold. well we left Anshan and the temperature here was a balmy -14, which I thought was fairly cool, anyway get to Harbin and it is -28 and that is cold (Click On the photo above and then click on slide show for all photos).The day we left was the coldest they have had in 10 years, the forecast said the high would be -22 but it only got to -31, we are next to Siberia here and winter temps are down to -40. Getting dressed to live in a place like Harbin takes a lot of effort. First undies, then long johns, then padded long johns which are very, very good and then trousers, upper body is T-shirt then shirt, then sweater then heavy quilted jacket. I was very lucky that the local police gave me a police issue jacket and fur hat so it takes a while to get dressed. Walking around and breathing and the inner nostrils form small icicles, any moisture just freezes. But it was interesting.

We went to the snow sculptures, a Russian holiday village and the Ice Lights.

The snow sculptures had a French and classical theme this year and are quite amazing. I wanted to see some of the remnants of the Russian influence and the village was very interesting, about a 100 years old and many Russians fled to Harbin during their revolution and made it home. The St Sophia church in the city is so Russian sitting in this Chinese city. Also went to an old Japanese Army camp, or prison. It is as they left it, and the Japanese used it to develop germs, poison gases and other horrible things. 300,000 Chinese died in their experiments, which included cutting people open when they were alive, injecting them with germs and plagues and even tying them up outside in the -30+ temps to see how long they would last in the cold and what kinds of frostbite they would get, pretty terrible but it happened and the Chinese people are still having difficulty accepting the Japanese after the atrocities committed here and throughout China.

Enough rambling on, it was as cold as I ever been but so interesting.

Now back in Anshan, and the weather here is cold also, just got back from class and it is -23, absolutely clear and no wind. Very bracing indeed.