没事 (Mei Shi) No Problem

Harbin Tiger Park

I was watching Star News Asia on Tuesday night when the story, "Animal Rights Abuses in China" was about to be shown. So, my question was, do I watch an old episode of Friends, or see the animal rights abuses. I stuck with the animal thing because I did not want to see another incestual, backbiting conceit filled 20 minutes.

The story started off at the Harbin Siberian Tiger Park, a place I did not know existed, but now I wish I would have made a visit there. So anyway, this tiger park drives people in buses into a compound like Jurassic park. They then proceed to feed the tigers some sort of animal, depending on the price that was paid. Is this an abuse? I am interested to hear your opinions on this matter.

Star News claimed that the tigers were over weight and slowly killed the animals because they were not even hungry. I do not have their footage or their story, but it showed a montage - 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes that the cow was still alive. Anyway, here is some footage for you to look at before you make your decision about the park.

Siberian Tigers Get Their Feed

Harbin China - Siberian Tiger Park

If you watched all of those then you have a pretty good idea of what the park is doing. Of course, the park is about making money, but what do western wildlife parks do with their big animals at feeding time? Do they give them mountains of slaughtered meat or live animals? Is there a difference?

When I was in high school, we used to love going in after school to watch the python eat a rabbit...was that abuse as well? I am certain we would not have gotten the snake to eat salad. haha

On another note, after talking about this with some colleagues, I heard that some elementary students from an international school in Beijing went to that park thinking they were going to see a tiger show...they got a show they did not expect and left screaming. Does that change the way you feel about the abusiveness of the park?

Yabuli Ski Resort

  This is must read information if you want to go to Yabuli and Windmill Village in HeilongJiang, Harbin, China. We encountered so many people who were dealing with such ridiculous pricing and other situations that I feel it would be irresponsible to not help people with regards to this ski area.
  First, if you are seriously into skiing and want the best hill, it would be better to fly somewhere else to ski for piece of mind. The second you arrive at this place you are going to feel like you are paying too much...and you will be and you will have nothing you can say about it because you are miles from anywhere and a captive of their economic system. If you MUST visit this ski resort, then you should email us at chinavideoblog@gmail.com and Jiao Jiao can help you get a reservation. Maybe you could give her a tip for her work. She will certainly save you money and trouble.
  Don't believe me? We paid 300 rmb a night for a room that was filled with bugs, living bugs in the dead of winter, while a German man paid 900 a night for the same thing. They told him they had no room, so he needed to pay that much...he did not even get into the main lodge with that...he was in the Asian Games dorms for 900 a night. Another guy got his deposit kept due to simple bloody mindedness. So, once again, if you give Jiao Jiao 50 rmb for her booking, you are saving it in the end.
  It was a warm winter and the snow was not plentiful. The best runs had grass growing up through them and the bottom of the hill was a massive slab of pure ice which forced a person to be very skilled with their edges. In America, 20 dollars would be sufficient for skiing here. This resort costs more than 400 rmb, not cheap. You will see the best skiers in China, all six or seven of them!
  The best part of the trip was when we were able to use a sauna all to ourselves...that was fantastic...hehe
  We did not really like this section of the trip, but it was my idea to see the best skiing China had to offer...my mistake! Here is our video log of the trip, enjoy the frustrations....

Japanese Autrocities Museum

After we had been to the ice festival, we had one more day before we went skiing. So, we decided to make an excursion on the bus to the Museum of Japanese Unit 731, which was a very brutal germ warfare testing unit during the Sino-Japanese War. They were very secretive and no one really knew what they did at the time. When the Russians began moving in on the country, the people destroyed the lab and fled. Over the years they had done many experiments on many people. Here is the video we made of our trip.

The Harbin Ice Festival

Over the Spring Festival, Jiao Jiao and I took a trip north to Hei Long Jiang province, better known as Harbin. This place has become world famous for the Harbin Ice Festival which features, of course, ice sculptures. Actually, the sculptures would be better described as structures. There are only a couple of actual sculpting projects and a large number of block stacks around the facility. It was a little different than I expected, but an interesting view none the less. We spent far too much time at this place, but the posts for that are yet to come. There will be two movies that you can see here and an album of pictures to take a peek at as well. The first movie is a 10 minute joy ride through the park with lots of funny stuff, it is sure to get a giggle or two.

The second video is a slide show of the pictures we took while at the festival. We actually arrived at the park at 3 pm, hours before anyone else, so we got some good pictures during day and night that we faded together.

On the side, you can click the link the Ice Festival photo album to see more of what we got from that festival. Comments about the movie are appreciated.