Celebrating Chinese New Year: A Pig year in review (Part 1 of 2)

Alrighty then. Now that I'm over a year behind on this blog...let's use some photos to help us get caught up...

First, let's begin with the Harbin Snow & Ice Festival. This event is held every winter in the northeast of China, where the temperatures can drop to the -30's Celsius. Thankfully for me, when I went last winter, the nighttime temperatures were only -16 C, and the daytime temperature was a balmy -5 C. Every year, in one part of the festival, teams and artists sculpt snow into massive shapes and scenes. In the more famous section of the festival, massive blocks of ice are carved out of the river, and stacked & shaped into HUGE displays. Last year, since the festival was held in combination with Korea, there were ice carvings shaped into almost life-sized replicas of the Korean palace. Other shapes were the Great Wall of China, various churches and cathedrals around China, and massive temples and Buddhas.











In March, Jeff and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary by going to Hainan Island, China's domestic beach resort destination. Having never truly stayed at a beach resort, I had nothing to base comparisons off of... But, it was beautiful, with lots of sand, lots of sun, and lots of seafood (which you can choose from a tank yourself). =)









In April, I took the pseudo-boondoggle trip to New Zealand which was covered in a previous blog. Then, over May holiday, we took a trip to Singapore and Cambodia. The Singapore portion was mainly for a friend's wedding. We then tacked on a side-trip to Cambodia to check out Angkor Wat. The temples were absolutely amazing, despite the enormous amount of tourist traffic they get. I often wondered what it would have been like, being the first foreigner to discover these temples deep in the heart of the jungle.

June brought the arrival of my parents, for their annual-ish trip to China. I took the chance to bring my parents to the alley where my dad's old house was. We knocked on the door of the house we *thought* was his house, and instead, found an old man who had been living there for all of his 75 years... He did, however, have a deep memory of a Mongolian family on their street that owned a big white dog. That dog, incidentally, had bitten him on the behind, thus leaving the deeply ingrained memory. =) He was kind enough to lead us to the correct house, as well as document his memory of the old alley, and the comings-and-goings of the various families that had lived in the old house. Today, there are 5 families living in the house. Only one of the walls is the original wall, since most of the house had been damaged by the famous Tangshan quake. Also, while walking around Beijing, we witnessed the beautiful sunsets that only a smog-enriched atmosphere can offer.