The Great Meltdown

A look at the melting Songhua! Qingming Festival was our first day over 20 degrees this spring and even with all the dust in the air it was still lovely to be out and about on such a warm day!

A look at the patchwork of ice still clinging to the river.

Songhua in Early Spring

Given how warm (for here!) it's been lately I was more than a little surprised to see so much ice left on the Songhua! You definitely can't walk across it anymore, but it's still impressive how much of the river is still covered!

The trees are very wisely holding out till they're sure the warmer weather's here to stay...

People are already out flying kites again! (God knows there's always the wind for it!)

Summertime on the Riverfront

After a rather wet start we're finally enjoying the gorgeous blue skies of a Manchurian summer.

It's always so nice to see people out flying kites in the squares along the Songhua Riverfront.

Alas, accidents do happen on occasion! (But how is quite the question, I wouldn't have thought you could drive down to this part of the riverfront!)

Riverfront From Above

A look north up the Songhua Riverfront from the lift over the river.

Sun Island

I finally got on a ferry and visited Sun Island! But I accidentally got on a ferry doing a tour of the wetlands near Sun Island, so I saw a lot of this for an hour before getting to the island itself...

Part of the sculpture park in the Sun Island Scenic Area featuring sculptures by Chinese sculptor Yu Qingcheng. The Scenic Area is a separate park on Sun Island and cost ¥30 or ¥35 to enter. (Not sure of the price 'cause a friend bought the tickets. Sorry!)

The neat dragon centerpiece of a square in the Sun Island Scenic Area.

A mini mountain beautifully set next to a pond in the Scenic Area.

This corner of the Island was particularly beautiful...and utterly spoiled by the Chinese music blaring from loudspeakers strategically scattered along all of the walkways.

The lovely stone path up the little mountain.

The pavilion at the top of the 'mountain.'

The esplanade along the ponds.

More of the ponds.

I took the lift over the Songhua back to downtown Harbin instead of doing the ferry again. For some reason the lift leaves and arrives at very Disneyesque castles...

Looking north up the Songhua at Sun Island, with Songbei (newer, left-bank Harbin) and a couple of the bridges connecting the two sides of the city in the background.

Riverfront in the Spring

Some of the lovely trees in Stalin Park! (I still have no idea how its kept that name all these years given who it was named for and the rocky relationship his country had with China for many years before the former's collapse.)

The four people in the center of this photo had my friends and I in stitches! The two young men (seated) were taking turns taking pictures of each other posing by Songhua when the older couple paused to take pictures of one another in the same spot, interrupting the ongoing 'photoshoot' in the process! It was too funny, especially given how selfie and photo-obsessed so many people are here...

Ice River

Looking down at the recreational area on the frozen Songhua that's set up every year adjacent to the Flood Control Monument at the top of Zhongyang Avenue.

Looking at downtown right bank Harbin from the middle of the Songhua.

Sunset over the icy Songhua.

Another view of right bank Harbin from the Songhua.

Daowai Bridge

One of the bridges over the Songhua, this in central Daowai. The whole area has a potentially beautiful riverfront, but virtually no places to sit and enjoy the view. (Unless you've carted in your own seating, drinks, and food of course.)

Riverfront Church

A lovely little Chinese Catholic church near the Songhua riverfront in central Daowai. (On Jiangpan Road near where it crosses the 20th Alley of North (Bei) Road - Bei Er Shi Dao Lu in pinyin I believe.)

Turtle Snatchers

I was walking along the Songhua a bit ago and thought these guys were taking a dip in the river. It turned out they were catching turtles, likely to go either to the over-crowded, incredibly inhumane pet shops or, worse, to the vendors selling tiny baby turtles and fish in key chains so that kids can have the delight of watching a little living creature die in their rattling key chains. There are so many wonderful things about China, but the general lack of any sort of empathy for animals - and even other human beings at times - can be pretty deeply disturbing. (Not a problem confined to China, unfortunately...)

Spring Approaches

The trees here along Harbin's right bank riverfront may still look dead and the temperatures may still be in the negatives [Celsius] a lot of the time, but the skies are blue, the air has been delightfully clean over the last week, and flocks of birds are flying north - one can't help feeling that spring is very nearly sprung!