SoleSky

Harbin Thrilling Journey – Part 5@Sun Island

calcifer — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:17:09 +0000

Sun Island, maybe this is a name that make you think of sunshine and warm day. But it was the winter time right now… The warm day is an impossible dream…
As I mentioned at the last post, the annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has two main exhibition areas. Excluding the “Ice and Snow World”, the Enormous snow sculptures at sun island is another big show we should visit.

At the front gate:

A little warm wooden hut (actually it is a shop and restaurant …):

Then show time!

Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival is an annual activity and there are many excellent snow sculptures created by many artists from different countries. As we known that snow will melt and disappear when the spring comes. And these beautiful art works will disappear. But don’t worry, people choose the best pieces of works to make the plaster copies for them. Then we can have the chance to enjoy those amazing snow sculpture years ago

Though I am totally a southerner, I still know that snow is very soft and loose. Maybe we can use it to make a normal size snow man, but it can’t form those such huge sculptures by just putting the snow together. So how the artists make it possible?
We were lucky to get the answer because we were the early visitors. Many snow sculptures were still “under construction”.

Let’s take a interview from how the snow comes to being art works:
these are some snow making machines. They were blowing out snow. Then packed the snow into blocks and transfer to different working places. Unpacking them and put them together to form the general size of the sculpture. The workers began to work on these giant snow rocks.
->

I wanna to have a try this sled pulled by dogs :

That’s all, still for the freezing cold weather, our camera all “died” very early.

Left Our mark here, AFC forever~

Harbin Thrilling Journey – Part 4@ Streets and Central Avenue

calcifer — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:09:24 +0000

Virginia Auto Insurance

At the post “Part 2@ Cathedral & Province Museum”, we knowed that Harbin is very much influenced by its Russian past. There are many traces that talk us the story about the old time.

So visiting the old urban of Harbin would be the best experience for those who love history and building architecture. We took bus to the old urban at a quite special street. There are lots of old building here and also plenty of antique shops. Yep, here is not only the “old” place, but also the place of selling “old” stuff.

We went into several antique shops and found kinds of interesting things there. And we almost got lost at the “Great Russian New and Old Good Trade Market”. From old radio machines to old comic book we read when we were still children, from pieces of fossil to beautiful china vase, no matter Russian antiques or domestic ones, all kind of antiques can be found here.

We spent our time there for the whole morning. And then we walked through many street with different styles. They are also very impressive.

Then we arrived the bank of the Songhua River when the sun started to fell. After spending a while on the ice in the river and waking on the iron railway bridge, we headed to the central avenue.

Central avenue is the center of Harbin City. Though the stone road is still the same as how it looks likes hundreds of years ago, the central avenue has a new modern look already. There is no different between those big shopping streets in other cities and here. The only difference is this street has its unique exotic sentiment.

Harbin Thrilling Journey – Part 3@Ice and Snow World

calcifer — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:10:11 +0000

Here we go, the first big hit of our Harbin Thrilling Journey, the Ice and Snow World! One of our main target of this journey is here, the greatest show of ice and snow.

Harbin is located in Northeast China under the direct influence of the cold winter wind from Siberia. The average temperature in summer is 21.2 degrees Celsius, −16.8 degrees Celsius in winter.

The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival has been held since 1985. Although the official start date is January 5 each year, in practice, many of the sculptures can be seen before. While there are ice sculptures throughout the city, there are two main exhibition areas: Enormous snow sculptures at Sun Island (a recreational area on the opposite side of the Songhua River from the city) and the separate “Ice and Snow World” that operates each night. Ice and Snow World features illuminated full size buildings made from blocks of ice. Winter activities in the festival include Yabuli Alpine Skiing, winter-swimming in Songhua River, and the ice-lantern exhibition in Zhaolin Garden. Snow carving and ice and snow recreations are world famous.

The “Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival” is one of the world’s four largest ice and snow festivals, along with Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada’s Quebec City Winter Carnival, and Norway’s Ski Festival.

Every November, the city of Harbin sends teams of ice artisans to the United States to promote their unique art form. It takes more than 100 artisans to create ICE!, the annual display of indoor Christmas-themed ice carvings in Nashville, Tennessee; Kissimmee, Florida; and Grapevine, Texas. From wikipedia.org

Thanks to Iris, her wisdom help us to get those tickets at half price by pretending we were still college students. Maybe that was not so good, but who care~~ Let’s move out!
PS: Because those huge sculptures and buildings were all made of ice, this whole area is much colder than other place. So don’t forget to keep your camera warm when you were totally fascinated with those beautiful and colorful crystal. Your camera would be “killed” by the low temperature ! That’s the reason we didn’t catch all the sculptures, but we had captured them by our eyes

This Sphinx was not just a sculpture to see, it’s also a slide to play~ Galacy was waving her hand on the slide

As you saw, there are many many “buildings” stand in this park, they were all very famous symbol of those foreign countries. Just like the “Sphinx” I mentioned is the image of Egypt. The castle above is the very famous Japanese building. And there are more familiar building you might know about them:

BTW, there were also other funny ice sculptures like this one:

WOW, this bottle of Harbin Beer can make all of us got drunk.

Aslo so funny game to play:

Is that all? Of course not! We went to watch a wonderful show at the “Moulin rouge” and saw many beautiful Russian dancers~~
But before of that, all of our camera were killed by the frozen temperature…. So no photos about those beauties~~ Sorry

We didn’t leave there until the park began to close. That is the day I watch the most great number of ice in my life!!

Harbin Thrilling Journey – Part 2@ Cathedral & Province Museum

calcifer — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 07:04:54 +0000

Now we were at one of the most famous ice cities in the world, with the extremely low temperature I never met. But the inside heating in the hotel warm us up. After having a very nice sleep and simple breakfast, our adventure began from here, the downtown of Harbin.

PS: Can you see the one stylish building on the left? That is the famous old food campany in Harbin. And its famous Harbin red sausages and candies are the best choice of souvenirs for those vistors like us.

Look at this~ A Russian goods selling mall, but my Harbin friend said those goods were too expensive to buy, so just passed it…
If you ask me how I felt in such frozen weather, I would say it’s totally a challenge! I would never consider that one day I stand upon the ground that cover ice surrounded by freezing air. Though we were wearing thick and heavy clothes, the wing was still cutting our faces. It’s definitely “cool” experience for the guys from the south like me. You can image that how could it be if you saw your eyelash covered with ice frequently…

Before we reached the Province Museum, we came across a cathedral. Like many buildings in Harbin, this red building is also in Russian style. This red cathedral is so attractive among those modern buildings and streets. Harbin today is still very much influenced by its Russian past. A city once under Russian rule, it is now a center of trade with that country.The influence of Russia came with the construction of the China Far East Railway, an extension of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and Harbin, known formerly as a fishing village began to prosper as the largest commercial, economic center of North Eastern Asia. So we can find many evidences like this in the downtown.

Human settlement in the Harbin area dates from at least 2200 BC (late Stone Age). So its history is very a chick book to read. To know a city, the museum is the very starting place. After a quite “hard” walk, we arrived the Helongjiang Province Museum.

The museum is so big to walk around. we spent hours in it. Aerock who came from Beijing is a super expert about the old stuff and history. He is keen on collecting antiques. Thanks to his guide, we experienced a great history and culture feast.

To be continued….

Harbin Thrilling Journey – Part 1 :Prelusion

calcifer — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:37:45 +0000

As a very very “classical” southerner, I never ever saw a really snowflake nor knew what the temperature below zero °C feels like. Making a journey at a “snowing” place is always the most desirous one of my dreams. Which city would be titled as ice and snow metropolis in China? All people all give you the answer, Harbin without hesitancy. Then I am at Canton, the city lies in the very south China, and Harbin, lies in the very northeast China. How to make it? that’s the biggest problem stands in front of us. BTW, can we bear in the temperature that stand at the opposite side of the red zero bar in the thermo-graph?

This crazy plan was reminded again by AFC members casual chatting and make a decision at October. Thanks to the AFC group members, especially Iris, you make my dream come true. (What’s AFC stands for ? Maybe we shall talk about it later ) With the help of them, we make up a very detailed blueprint of “AFC@Harbin”. Now, we were not just dreamers, we were rolling out! After booking plane ticket and buying winter protection stuff like down coat, snowshoes, gloves on the Internet. We are ready to fly before the new year vacation.

30th Dec. 2010, our big day to fly across the whole great China. Our thrilling and exciting journey to Harbin began! It was predestined to be a “exciting” one because many unexpected things happened before we landed to the frozen land. At first, we thought we make a perfect preparation before we got to the New Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. That was the place where our nightmare started. For the bad driving of the airport shuttle bus, I was a little uncomfortable when we got off the shuttle bus and didn’t noticed that we forgot to bring one luggage. Then we went straight to fetch our boarding licenses without any thinking. After we realized we did a terrible things, we were totally freaked out and the perfect scheme suddenly broke into pieces.

It happened just like a chain reaction. We spent too much time to find our lost luggage to get on board. After missing the plan we have to change our ticket and waiting the other plane at night. Luckily we got the news that luggage was kept by the bus station afternoon. But we have no time to fetch anymore. This time we went to the waiting area early for our second chance, but what we got is the news that our plane would delay by more that one hour …

Finally,,, we took off from Baiyun Airport and head to…. Shenyang! Because our direct flight had already gone at noon and this plane had to landed at Shenyang first. And the worse thing was one of our down coats was in the lost luggage!!! I had no down coat to take on and stand outside under about -25 °C at Shenyang airport while changing plane …

We didn’t give up though so many troubles came to us and landed at Harbin about 2 o’clock in deep night… Our dear AFC friends kept concerned until we got there and sent warm down coat for me. Thank you! Iris and Aerock! They waited for us for more that one hour under that chilly night, almost -30 °C at that time… We four poor guys spent another hour to hotel and made this unforgettable flight finished. We were all totally exhausted…..

This is my first time to take plane and first time to see so many ice and snow. Though there were lots of unacceptable accidents and trouble, it became more exciting and incredible~!

A Perfect Trysting Place at GDUT

calcifer — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:31:16 +0000

It’s a great pity for those students left GDUT before the new library completed totally. Though we made many bad comments when that building’s design and equipments when it just finished construction. After two years we felt, GDUT library really changed a lot. That makes me so “envy” at the current students~

All I can say is you are so lucky and fortunate to have such a place to study. The boys of GDUT are not nerds at all, so there are many trysting places in the campus, including this library. And this place is the main target that I would show you.

Maybe you will say library is a public place and leave no private space for the lovers. Don’t forget the balcony on the top of this building, that’s the place that not many people know about. The balcony is an open place hasn’t used with purpose. But some genius make this place so amazing and beautiful.

The gate walls with different colors stand straightly one by one. The ground is covered with gravel. It doesn’t need any more ornaments and decorations. The colors have make this picture perfect.
PS: If you love this walls too, just try this picture as your desktop wallpaper~ click to download

These lovely little rocks show that it’s really a trysting place here.

From here, It seems that the whole campus is just under our feet. And all the colors of GDUT buildings can be found here too. Little fellows, you have the good days and perfect environment right here today. Just enjoy the fantasy campus life~

Say Goodbye to Google.cn

calcifer — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:50:43 +0000

As one of the Google service users in China, the most we don’t want to see is Google leaves from China. That means its services would blocked by GFW with no doubt. At that time, we have to access them by bypassing the “Wall”. But today, we have to be proud of the decision that Google made and support it. Cause Google is so brave and carry out its responsibility regardless of all its loss.

new approach to china

I read the entire post on blogspot.com and felt the determination of Google. As a ordinary user, I am always thankful about what Google did for us. Then I don’t use the other .cn search services too much(I go to .com for searching directly), but I feel happy to use Gmail service freely here. I still can’t image that the days with Google….

God bless Google.cn…..

Good Day~ (Test Flickr)

calcifer — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:04:06 +0000

Play SSH Trick Freely Part 2

calcifer — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:35:01 +0000

As we said, we can set up a secure Socket 5connection via SSH tool. Then we make our App. like browsers programs go through it. But,,, not all of the browsers support the Socket 5 proxy method. For example, the new generation Google web browser Chrome doesn’t support that.

So we have to make it through. First, the Chrome browser does support the common proxy way — Http proxy. And then, if we can “translate” the socket connection into the http connection, then it works!

The solution is to set up a http proxy in our localhost and let it do the job to help those App. to talk to the remote socket proxy. Then comes to the next tool we need, the Privoxy. Yep, we always use this software to help our Tor proxy services smarter. So we can also do it in this way:

Find the configure file of Privoxy : /etc/privoxy/config (in Ubuntu)
And add this line at the end of the file:

forward-socks5 / 127.0.0.1:7070 .

(don’t miss the “.” at the end of line, that make this route complete)

Easy to see that all the date transfer through the 7070 port will “translate” into the SSH socket 5 proxy service
Save and exit.

Restart the Privoxy :

sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy restart

(in Ubuntu)

And finished…. All you have to do next is to set up your browser’s proxy as http proxy: 127.0.0.1:7070

And BTW, the DNS pollution problem is still needed to be considered.

X’mas Countdown

calcifer — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:56:22 +0000

Happy X’mas~~~