Friday, January 15, 2010

Sunday, January 10, 2010

White Christmas at Northern China

As it was a trip planned at the very last minute, we had no choice but to get a package tour which could still bring us to a winter wonderland...

In the end, we took up the "8 Days winter fantasy" package with CTC (Ch8 is featuring the same itinerary by CB this week)~
Day 1: SGP-Shanghai-Dalian
Due to heavy snowing, our flight was delayed for about 4 hours during our transit at Shanghai airport.
Highlights at Dalian: North Bridge, Tiger Bay Theme Park, Lushun Harbor, Lushun Museum

Day 2 to 3: Dalian - Shenyang
Shenyang: Imperial Palace, Shenyang Financial Museum Former Residence of General Chang Hsueh-Liang
Former Mansion of General Chang
Former Bank owned by General Chang

In the Imperial Palace compound
Day 4 to 5: Jilin - changchun
Jilin: Rime Scenery (skipped - our tour guide said that there would be very low chance of sighting. For Rime to be formed, there are Three criteria: 1- temperature must be around -20degree; 2- wind speed not more than 3 and 3 - highly humid atmosphere, so it has to be near a water source where the water will not freeze at such low temperature), Deer Farm, Korean Village (skipped - our tour guide said that there would be no performance during this period)
Changchun: Jingyuetan Ski Resort
On our way to the Ski slope







Winter wonderland...the view outside our hotel


Snowing today!!



Trying to be a snow angel...

At the vicinity of the Deer farm

But we were more interested in the snowscape than the deer farm...





Day 6 to 7: Harbin
Harbin highlights: Sun Island Ice-Snow World, Central Street, St. Sophia Orthodox Church Square, Zhao Lin Park Ice Lantern, Ice Sculpture, Flood Prevention Monument

It's so cold, the vapour turned into ice on the lashes and eyebrown
The trend for this season....

We missed the Rime, but check out the "wu song" on my furry hat...

Disney Theme Ice sculptures in the next few pics...






Checking the waether forecast at the hotel lobby


Visiting the Siberian tiger reserve...
Majestic creature

At Sun island...


Snow sculpture




At the Ocean theme park...
Artic fox that reminded me of hamster...


And, finally....
Harbin's ice festival















There's even Merlion (representing Singpapore!)


Posing with Guai Guai, the artic fox





(Interesting Fact: This is the first time I did not take any photos of the food/meals we had during the entire trip. The reason is quite obvious, I wonder why there are some participants in the CB travel program who thinks the food is nice.... ?!!!
I believe if I'm one of the participants filmed, they will definitely censor the part with me away.)