Harbin 3 Sun Island & Swimming (1/12/2013)

Still Saturday, January 12, 2013
At Sun Island Park, there is the Sun Stone:

And the Sun Gate:

Sun Island Park is the venue for the Snow Sculpture Exposition of the Ice and Snow Festival. We were accompanied by a lovely couple from Sweden, whose guide was still a student and did not have his certification to enter the park. So Yvonne did double duty for this venue.
A couple of massive snow sculpture vignettes; this one includes several of the Seven Wonders of the World:

The sphinx is standing in for the Great Pyramids, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Temple of Artemis, Lighthouse of Alexandria, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Great Wall.
Tamiko & Kent with the sphinx:

Yvonne

Kent on a skate-bike thingie:

Innertubes to slide down the Great Wall ice slide:

I think this is supposed to look like Kent came crashing through the wall to get away from the dinosaur:

German shepherd dog sleds:

"Pray" snow sculpture:

One of the Heavenly Kings:

The Sun Pavilion or Gloriette in the background:

Theater snow sculpture?

Two face profiles:

A crashed car snow sculpture:

Horse snow sculpture on one side:

The horse from the other side:

The snow sculptures are part of a competition between international teams.
Another huge snow sculpture, with the theme of the Nuzhen (ancestors of the Manchu) people, showing their housing:

Most of the sculpture is in this photo:

A Nuzhen girl with fish, fishing nets and boats below:

The smoggy sky and snow are almost the same color...
The outdoor refrigerator of a Nuzhen home:

The community soup pot:

This is for Sparkle: Kent points out the millet:

Apparently millet was the base grain for the Nuzhen people, not rice.
Indoors, my camera fogged up, but this is a kang, a bed heated from underneath.

Frozen pears were hard as a rock:

You soak them in water to eat them.
We left Sun Island Park and drove back across the Songhua River to Stalin Park. Yes, Stalin Park, but to the Chinese, it's just a few syllables: Sidalin. We saw one part of the park behind the Flood Control Monument. This section also had winter activities.
We went down this ice slide:

Hand-propelled ice chairs:

I suppose one lines up with the tail chair bringing up the rear. We didn't see a dragon head chair.

Snowmobiles rides:

Dune/ice buggy rides:

Boats frozen into the river:

Ice sailing:

What we really came to see (not participate in !!) was the winter swimming. Here the man is breaking off the ice that is forming at the edges of the "pool:"

KSS

One of the swimmers:

Here they come:

Most came to take a dive or two, then they got out and returned to the changing cabin:

Okay, so who cares what the dive looks like!

Can you believe they wear only bathing suits?

Women, too:

These two ladies hammed it up, like synchronized swimmers:

Well, they had a half hour to dive and swim, but we were heading to lunch!
We had lunch at Dangfang Jiaoziwang Restaurant, known for their dumplings. We had shrimp and pork, lamb, and vegetable dumplings, and actually the veggie one was our favorite. There was also a tasty cold noodle dish, and cold chicken parts.
Next, Harbin 4 St Sophia and Ice and Snow World.