Seeing as we finished our models yesterday Mr Du said we could go into the city today. Two of his students came with myself, Andreas and Nana to show us round and attempted to teach us some Chinese! They took us to the shopping malls first and the Sophia Church. It was a lot smaller than we expected and grander from the outside than in but had some rather elaborate chandeliers! We made a quick stop at Starbucks after to warm up!
We went to a dumpling restaurant for lunch, we’re all managing well with chopsticks despite the dumplings being a little slippery to pick up! After lunch we walked down Central Street to the river. The streets were very pretty with snow-covered trees lining them. There were also lots of ice sculptures along them and people selling caramelised frozen fruit on sticks. We were all well wrapped up as it was snowing a little – it made us feel very Christmassy!
At the end of the street was a large river that was completely frozen over! It had people skiing on seats and riding in a horse and cart amongst other activities. We went down a long ice slide on sledges and we were towed behind a car on rubber rings. We got covered in snow but it was all good fun! We were even greeted back at uni by a Russian Santa who got us to sing Jingles Bells in return for some sweets!
Happy New Year from us all! xxx