Of course we were up at 3am this morning. After we both got showers and started getting things organized it was time for breakfast. After breakfast we got everything packed up and met our guide, Lydia, in the lobby and it was a half hour ride to the airport.
We had 3 other families with us and Lydia got us all checked in and took us to the security check point. Then we had to say our goodbyes.
The flight coming in arrived late so of course we left about an hour late. Our flight was only an hour and a half and we were in Harbin. They served us drinks first and then came with a meal. It was really good. We were shocked as you don't see that on flights anymore in the USA.
It is a city of 5 million people and with the all the out lying area's about 10 million people!! It is very nice, different than Beijing. A bit colder too. There is really no snow here and our hotel overlooks the river and it is frozen. Lots of people out on the ice this afternoon. We even saw a guy on an old snowmobile. People were flying kites and riding bikes on the ice. The ice festival is pretty much over and they are smashing all the sculptures. They load up the smashed ice and have small dump trucks taking it out on the river and dumping it.
Our guide here is Echo. She is very nice and it's also her first time to come to Harbin. She is staying right next door which is really nice as there are very few people who speak English here compared to Beijing. We were talking about Robbie and she said that he is the youngest baby that she has helped a family with. She also doesn't think that there current weight of 25 lbs is correct. Guess we will find out tomorrow. We walked across the street and looked around and then she took us to Walmart.
What a sight that was. It's on 4 different floors and they have escalator ramps so that you can take your cart from floor to floor. We got water, soda, beer and instant noodles. They even have Pabst Blue Ribbon here. There is a photo below for proof. We found the area with diapers and baby supplies so that I can send Derek over tomorrow if there is anything we need. We didn't get too look around the fresh food area very much but Derek saw pig heads on ice as we came down the escalator. We will have to check that out better later. We have a McDonald's on the corner and a KFC close by if needed. Echo said she will write on a card what is good to eat at the dumpling restaurant so that we can go there and eat on our own and just show the card and they will get us the right stuff.
There is a lot of Russian influence here and you can see it in the buildings for sure and we have a few Russian stations on the TV. We only have 2 channels in English here, there were at least 5 in Beijing.
We are going to try to not go to sleep so early tonight so that we are not up at 3 am but we will see if we can keep our eyes open that long,
We are to meet Echo at 9am in the lobby so and go to the civil affairs office as she has been told that Robbie will be arriving there at 9:30!!! So that will be 7:30 pm on Sunday for you folks back in the USA!!!
Here is the view from our hotel in Beijing before we left this morning. You can see the smog already and this was about 7 am. There are lots of these sky cranes all over. You can't really see it in the photo but the Forbidden City is a few blocks down.
At least you know we are safe here. There are masks in the drawer in case of fire it says:
Here is the view from our room now in Harbin during the day and now lit up at night.
Gotta love the PBR!! From WI to Harbin.
And no we did not buy this, we bought Harbin beer. We haven't tried it yet.
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