harbin, part three

After a good rest in our warm and simple room that we got for 2o yuan per person per night (less than three dollars), we ate fruit and bread for breakfast, checked out of our room and left our luggage at the Korean restaurant where we had made friends the night before, and met our Korean friends to go to the snow park. It had been snowing earlier in the morning and started snowing again at the park. It was perfect!
The theme at the snow park this year was Canada, so there were maple leaves and other Canadian symbols like Niagra Falls sculpted in the park.
They were still sculpting some of the sections of the park.

Just before we left the park, someone noticed how amazing the snowflakes were. We tried to take pictures of them, but no one had a camera that could take such close pictures well. After spending a few hours looking at all these amazing snow sculptures, we were most amazed at what the maker sent that landed on our coats. They were simply the most intricate, beautiful, picture like snowflakes we had ever seen. Some of them had two levels and couldn't have been more perfect or beautiful. When we left the park, the flakes seemed to have turned normal again, but for a few minutes, we enjoyed the fascination of seeing those amazing flakes.

We spent the rest of the afternoon that day eating a huge Korean meal at the house of our new friends and then rested there until it was time for us to catch our train. We picked up our bags and got some kimbap (seaweed rolls) to eat on the train. I thought it was interesting that the only food we ate was American (McDonald's) and Korean the whole time we were there. I guess we should have ventured out, but those are the foods we are happy to eat and we were hosted by a Korean family, so we didn't try any new Russian or Chinese foods.

On the way back, we had sleeper tickets and met some students and teachers from our university, so it was much more enjoyable than our trip going. We had a lovely time in Harbin. I want to go back sometime!