It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...Spring?

I'm a little afraid that we'll get a snowstorm after I post this, but we've had daytime highs well over zero for a few days now, so hopefully we won't! Pictured is the Harbin Concert Hall - the rather hideous present-day home of China's oldest symphony orchestra - on Qunli Way in southwest Harbin.

A closeup of a lovely sculpture outside the Harbin Concert Hall.

Ice City Roads

We got a lot of snow (for here) this November plus the usual fluctuations in temperature, which resulted in some incredibly icy roads even for Harbin! Pictured is the first bus I tried to take home from work. It got most of the way up this hill coming out of Qunli, but then got stuck on the black ice at the intersection. Most of us got out two or three times to try to push it along, but after moving a bit it would stall again and I finally called it and started the long walk home...

School "Parking"

Schools here apparently aren't expected to budget any space for parents to pick up their kids at the end of the day, 'cause every school I have the misfortune of passing by at a certain point in the afternoon is like this. People double and tripled parked, completely blocking side streets and even major, congested roads while they hang out waiting for their kids...this incredible selfishness and disregard for others (pictured above, but blaringly, shockingly manifest in all kids of ways in life here) is one of the things that has stunned me the most about modern China. The old China of Laozi and Confucius that I read about never prepared me for this, nor did my extensive reading about Communism. Who knows, perhaps this is a moment in time that will fade away as the country develops, but in the meantime it is what it is!

Fall Sunset in Daoli

Apologies for the poor quality of the photo, but it does capture a little of how gorgeous yesterday's sunset was! Fall is such a beautiful time of the year (until the air pollution hits anyways!). This is looking out over the south end of Daoli District, with Qunli off in the distance in the right of the picture.

Construction in Qunli

It is utterly amazing and also a little scary how quickly buildings go up here! These were just foundations the last time I walked by two weeks ago and now they're already quite tall...

First Dust Storm of Spring

You know spring is well and truly sprung in Manchuria not by the buds on the trees or the blooms on the flowers (which likely won't come till May!), but by that first rush of gale-force wind bringing dust and sand from the Gobi!

Both of these pictures are from Qunli, one of the newer districts of Harbin on the southwest side of the city. I did see anyone sent flying there, but there's some crazy footage of what the wind did elsewhere in Harbin here.

Windmill at the Mall

The malls really go all out here! This is apparently a Halloween display, from a mall in southwestern Harbin's fashionable Qunli neighborhood.