Welcome to Sun Island!When I climbed onto the bus this morning, I was certain that I was headed to Taiyang Dao, Sun Island. But now I'm not so sure of where I went. If Alice fell in a rabbit hole in China, I'm pretty sure she would end up on Sun Island.
Dragons? The basilisk in Harry Potter? A phoenix? All of the above? Probably.Don't get me wrong, that's not a bad thing...I mean, I like trippy, bizarre places. It's just when you make that a trippy, bizarre, Chinese place, it can be a little strange.
Dr. Seuss called. He wants his forest back.Sun Island is an island across the Songhua River from Harbin that's known for being a sort of escape from the city. Despite the connotations of its name, it's actually best known as the site of the annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. So the attendance rate on the island spikes when the average temperature hits about -1 F. Makes sense, right?
In the summer, the island becomes an eclectic mix of...actually I'm not really sure. Most of the time we spent walking around through the lush greenery we were distracted as we dodged high-speed tourist trains. Picture those trams you see moving about 5 mph, carrying kids and the elderly through amusement parks; now, picture them moving about 15-20 mph on the sidewalk. Yeah. Scary.
After a few close encounters with these trams, we head off the beaten path to Naive Bear Paradise. I wish I could say that the name, ben xiong leyuan translates into something more eloquent and that this is just an unfortunate example of Chinglish, but the translation is actually quite accurate. If not "Naive," it might translate better into "Stupid Bear Paradise," so I'll stick with what they have. As it is, it sounds like it might fall somewhere between the Gumdrop Mountains of Candyland and Winnie-the-Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood.
Rule #3: Children, the olds, pregnant women, and the one who gets drunk or the person suffering from heart disease are not allowed to rent bikes. Otherwise "you will accept all the consequences yourself." Who is left over?
Also translates to "Stupid Bear Paradise." Take your pick.
Look at those cute bears with 魏德. Oh, and is that a prison behind them?
Which of these Naive Bears does not belong?Naive Bear Paradise was what you might get if you crossed a park with an amusement park, and sprinkled in a few creepy buildings that look like prisons. In other words, like nothing you have ever seen before. The icing on the top of the bizarre cake was the figurines sprinkled throughout the area. The vast majority were bears--in every pose imaginable--but there were also apples, birds, corn, pumpkins, and Bugs Bunny's evil Chinese twin. Once we passed some of the epic bear figures, we found a big blue roller coaster that 乐然 and I just had to ride (魏德 claimed he didn't want to ride because it looked bu name lihai--not that exciting--but let's be honest, he just chickened out). The roller coaster in itself really wasn't that great, but the experience was pretty exhilarating, if for nothing else than because I was sure that the frequent, violent jolts meant that at any moment the ride might fall apart.
We left behind the bears, rides, and wandered around the park for a while. We approached taiyang hu, Sun Lake, with paddle boats and decided to inquire about the price for renting a boat, but we were stopped by a group of eager, middle-aged people. Pointing at us, one man threw his companion his camera and ran over to pose with us for a picture. Caught off guard and baffled by his actions, we stood there, motionless as a series of five different people took turns posing with us: arms around our shoulders, on my left, in between us, smiling, stoic...I'm not sure how many pictures we were in, but the general consensus is that it was about 20 too many. So we ducked out of sight and took a break in the wooded area at the foot of taiyang shan, Sun Mountain.
Sitting on a bench near taiyang shan was like putting ourselves on display as the resident waiguoren: children ooh-ed and aah-ed, teens tried to stealthily snap our pictures, and elderly couples stared in disbelief when they heard us speaking Chinese. When we finally got up to leave the park, we were approached--nay, ATTACKED--by a group of people hollering and waving their cameras in our directions. With mutual glances and knowing nods, we did what any experienced celebrities might do: lowered our heads and ran away.
Safe out of reach of their voices or lenses, we chuckled and loaded back onto the bus, just in time for the sun to finally come out after what had been a rather sun-less day on Sun Island. Between the sun shining over our heads and our harrowing experiences with the renmin paparazzi, our discussion as found our seats focused on only one thing: where we could find the sunglasses we so desperately needed.
乐然 eyes the roller coaster ready to go. 魏德 quivers with fear.We left behind the bears, rides, and wandered around the park for a while. We approached taiyang hu, Sun Lake, with paddle boats and decided to inquire about the price for renting a boat, but we were stopped by a group of eager, middle-aged people. Pointing at us, one man threw his companion his camera and ran over to pose with us for a picture. Caught off guard and baffled by his actions, we stood there, motionless as a series of five different people took turns posing with us: arms around our shoulders, on my left, in between us, smiling, stoic...I'm not sure how many pictures we were in, but the general consensus is that it was about 20 too many. So we ducked out of sight and took a break in the wooded area at the foot of taiyang shan, Sun Mountain.
Sitting on a bench near taiyang shan was like putting ourselves on display as the resident waiguoren: children ooh-ed and aah-ed, teens tried to stealthily snap our pictures, and elderly couples stared in disbelief when they heard us speaking Chinese. When we finally got up to leave the park, we were approached--nay, ATTACKED--by a group of people hollering and waving their cameras in our directions. With mutual glances and knowing nods, we did what any experienced celebrities might do: lowered our heads and ran away.
Safe out of reach of their voices or lenses, we chuckled and loaded back onto the bus, just in time for the sun to finally come out after what had been a rather sun-less day on Sun Island. Between the sun shining over our heads and our harrowing experiences with the renmin paparazzi, our discussion as found our seats focused on only one thing: where we could find the sunglasses we so desperately needed.
The sun finally comes out over Sun Island and the city of Harbin.
Your Naive Bear Paradise Day sounds very fun. Really interesting too. Wonder what Sun Island is like in the Winter with the Ice Sculptures?
ReplyDelete--Lisa
I just commented on Laura's blog that I now have Naive Bear Paradise as a must-visit site, but now that I realize it's also Stupid Bear Paradise, I'm more convinced than ever!
ReplyDelete