Day at the Park Day 5 Sept 4

Hi all,

No official visits today, just a day on our own in Harbin. We thought we'd tell you a little about where we are. First, we're in the Heilongjiang Province. Heilongjiang means "Black Dragon". It is in northeast China. We are very close to Russia, in fact, the only other non-Chinese at our hotel are a few Russian tourists. Very few people speak English here.The hotel information book in our room is printed in Chinese, Russian, and English. Since we are so far North it gets dark around 7:00pm, and light around 4:00 am.

We are very conspicuous, it is just impossible to blend in! Then I think they wonder why these two westerners are carrying around the cutest boy in all of China!

Traffic here is a nightmare. The roads are shared with all modes of transportation. There are buses battling with bikes, and cars, and the pedestrians cross the street whenever and wherever they want to. There are crosswalks, which are general guidelines, but if you want to cross, you cross. When we go out to a restaurant, we have to cross six lanes of traffic. You just go a lane at a time, quickly.

I've posted a picture of the street outside our hotel. There is no parking other than right in front, which doubles as the sidewalk. I don't know what they'll do when there are even more cars on the road, they just don't have the infrastructure here to handle it. One of the street vendors is selling Moon Cakes for the upcoming Moon Festival, Kurt and Allison, shall we bring some home for you?

Walking around the town is interesting, in addition to the above mentioned traffic, there are street vendors selling all sorts of stuff. They have little stands with grilled meat, not sure what it is exactly. Some smells very enticing, but some looks and smell down right scary! We just look at each other and say, we don't even want to know!

We went to a park today, and there is such an interesting mix of people. There are elderly people everywhere doing their stretching, and exercise. There were some old guys hanging on the rings, and others on the bars, just like kids, it was fun to watch! Then after they're done, they have a cigarette. I've posted a picture of a guy doing his Tai Chi with his wife, it was neat to watch, you can't really tell from the picture, but the guy has his fan in one hand, and a cigarette in the other. Everyone smokes here!

One of the things we noticed that was missing from this park, and yesterday was strollers. It is more common for the parents to carry the children, from babies to young children. Of course, with the condition of the sidewalks, and the traffic, I think a stroller would be more of a hazard than a help. I think it's easier to just carry Tommy around!

Tommy is doing well, he can eat more food that we've ever seen! For breakfast he ate noodles, a bun, sweet bread, yogurt, egg, cereal, and juice! He's not that big, but he has a healthy appetite. I'll definitely have to increase our food budget!

That's all for now, we're headed to Gongzhou tomorrow to complete the U.S side of the paperwork.