Happy New Year!

I just got back from a 2 week holiday in China. Went to Harbin, Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai. Harbin is located in the Northeast of China and is known for its Ice Festival and Western/Russian influenced architecture.

A hidden gem that many people seem to skip over is the Russian Village, located on the outskirts of the city. For 20RMB you gain entrance and are handed a Russian passport with multiple pages as your entrance ticket. We were greeted at the gate by a real life Russian dressed in a military field uniform.I was quickly pounced on by a Chinese man who wanted to take my picture with his wife, maybe he thought I was Russian. I dutifully complied while trying not to stare at all the hair pouring from his nose. Do people not own mirrors?

The park itself was about 100 yards long and consisted of several Russian style buildings. One shop sold bread and had photos of naked women and "Merry Christmas"(in Russian) written on the wall.

Careful! If you click on the picture (to make it bigger) it won't be safe for work viewing!!

Along the path were giant matroshka dolls featuring past Russian/Soviet leaders.


In addition to the traditional styled Russian homes modeled. they also included a more modern day residence.


Can you guess what they sold in the souvenir shop where this snowbabushka stood guard?


I think the only major disappointment was that we missed out on the mud-wrestling and the chance to lie atop an alligator.