Ice World!

2/5/2008

-Ice world! We had made it. Words really cannot describe with justice the beauty of this place, so hopefully the pictures can do a better job. Even from the outside we were amazed. The entrance was set up like a giant castle, and a ten-foot high wall of ice surrounded the perimeter. I was actually surprised at how big it was. It really was an entire amusement park…made of ice.

-First things first, after the longest, coldest walk of my life, we needed to warm up and get some grub. There was a small shack/convenience store in the parking lot. All they had to eat were “just add water” buckets of noodles. But man, those were the best noodles I’d had in my life. =)

-We went in! Like I said, I cannot do this place justice with words. The place was filled with many buildings and sculptures, all of which had different colored fluorescent lights inside the ice. So the entire city glowed with color. The first station we stopped at had a set of completely accurate-looking, life-sized cars. I liked them a lot, and yet they still were probably the least interesting exhibit of all. Other buildings included a Forbidden City palace with steps going up two stories to the top, Westminster Abbey (or Notre Damne, I couldn’t tell), a Greek acropolis about five stories high with steps going up to the top, a Disney-like castle, and plenty of other buildings that were probably replicas of things I simply wasn’t familiar with. In the center was a 100-200ft high tower that flashed and changed colors in various patterns. A 10ft-wide orange and white walkway ran in a loop around the park. If you’ve ever played Mario Kart, it was basically the rainbow road. That’s right. Best of all, there was a five-story high ice luge made in the shape of the Great Wall. They sent us shooting down on a tiny plastic sled. I couldn’t believe how fast it went! They have a pile of soft snow for you to crash into at the end, and as soon as you do a big, burly Chinese man picks you up and throws you to the side, just as the person behind you comes flying in.

-Yea that’s another thing, this place could never exist in the states. It would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. They didn’t bother with any “handrails,” “regulations” or “safety.” On the luge alone, I don’t understand how somebody doesn’t get run into every five minutes. It’s really too bad that Americans have to be so paranoid and quick to sue people at the drop of a hat. This was an amazing park.

-So you may have noticed that an entire city of ice would require the place to be pretty dang cold. It was…and then some. How cold was it you ask? We never got an exact number because we never found any thermometers, but it was so cold that the batteries in my camera froze. At first I thought the batteries I used just ran out quickly, but when I put a brand-new pair in and it immediately said “low battery” and turned off, I realized what was happening. By the end of the night, I had to clasp the batteries in my hands for several minutes just to warm them up enough to take one, maybe two pictures before they froze up again. Within seconds they were unusable. I was bundled up enough that I didn’t feel all that cold, meaning I didn’t feel like my health was in danger by being outside. Some of our friends, however, were not dressed well enough to feel that confident, so we had to make sure to take a break inside every once in a while. Fortunately, they had plenty of heated cafés spread about the place, so we never had to worry.

-On our trip back we grabbed the first taxi driver we saw but made SURE to ask him how much ahead of time. He told us 80 kuai to fit all six of us in one cab, which isn’t even a good deal but at that point we didn’t care. We were cold, and that was good enough. Yet, when we finally got to the hotel the guy thought he could get away with telling us there was an extra “20 kuai fee.” No way, buddy. We threw 80 at him and got out, despite what he yelled at us. It seems like everybody tries to squeeze extra money out of us.