Ice Festival at LongQing Gorge

Just after getting home from Thailand we had the chance to go on an afternoon trip to the Ice Festival at Longqing Gorge with a group from church. The weather was completely the opposite to what we got used to in Thailand, and we really had to bundle up. We took a bus out to Longqing (about 1.5 hours away). Nick had already been there once this summer, but it looks completely different now.

We had a few hours to wander around and see everything. The weather was cold, but definitely bearable when we got there. As the sun went down it got much colder, but then they turned on all the lights! They had a variety of ice and snow sculptures and ice slides (don't worry I didn't even try to convince Nick to let me go down... he got in trouble at work when showing his co-workers pictures of his pregnant wife on an elephant!).

The really cool part was the ice city they had all lit up inside a big tent. I thought the stuff outside was cool, but we walked in the door to the tent and I was impressed. It was so pretty. I imagine Harbin is much prettier, but this was a much cheaper, shorter trip and I really enjoyed it. Also, I discovered just how much I love hot almond milk in the winter. It was so nice to be able to drink something warm and I am definitely going to be looking for it at the store by our house. They heat it up right in the can and it tastes so good!

The show at the entrance

A big dragon outside

Ice dragon. There will be lots of these pictures the next few months since baby will be born in the year of the dragon.

The lights turned on at night.

Inside the tent

Ice City

A view from above.

Sorry for the blurry picture. They recreated the Great Wall along the edge of the mountain in lights. It was neat.